Megaman Zero
by baka no hentai
Summary: Zero, the legendary warrior has been awakened in the midst of the most ferocious war mankind has ever seen. Now, he must cope with finding his identity while striving to find justice in a corrupt world.
1. Hope and hatred

Disclaimer (I know you hate it, but I kinda have to): I do not own Megaman Zero, or any characters originally depicted in the game. I will use terms of my own creation in this story, or terms that may be difficult to understand have you not played the game. a footnote number will be beside the word, and a corresponding footnote is enclosed at the bottom of the chapter. Thank you very much for taking the time to read my story, now, let us begin.

"Milan, did you get anything?"

"Nope, all we can collect is a signal so crappy we can only get an approximation of around ten miles."

Ciel swore as her florescent pink tech boot slapped the muddy ground extra hard. She held up her white gloved hand under a green poncho sleeve, and input the code into the GP tracker for the umpteenth time, and saw a thin wavering circle trying to materialize around a ten mile radius. Ciel pulled her boot out of the extra soft mud that it had found with a loud squelching noise. She brushed the soaked blonde hair out of her eyes, and turned to face her scouting party.

"Alright, we've got ten miles to cover, now split up into groups of no more than five; Milan and Passy are coming with me. If you find anything that might be it, investigate, and if it is, radio everyone, and relay coordinates. Other than that, I want no radio waves sent, they're too easy to track, so use PointCast(1) only."

The small scouting team split uneasily, and did not divide up into anything less than five, wary of wandering the swampy forests alone with the Arcadians out there.

Ciel felt a familiar warm tingling sensation(2)over her shoulder a she heard a voice address her, "Ciel, are you sure it's a good idea to split up the troops like this? If we're found, we won't survive." Asked Passy, Ciel's best friend from childhood and the only unused cyber-elf(3) in the resistance. Passy was also an incredibly talented tactician and hacker, and it was almost never a bad idea to follow her counsel

"If we find him, none of that will matter." replied Ciel as professionally as possible.

"What was that?" The young scientist immediately felt the warmth of the cyber-elf's presence leave her shoulder, and before the girl could look for her, a small head with oversized eyes, and shoulder length golden hair tied in a bun behind her head.

"AIIEE!" screamed Ciel as she stumbled backwards from the cyber-elf's sudden appearance in front of her face. Ciel felt herself trip, and begin to fall. Before the ground had time to catch up with her, a pair of strong arms caught her, and slowly lifted her back to a standing position. Ciel looked up at her rescuer, and saw the face of her boyfriend, and coworker, Milan, smiling back down at her.

"Ciel!" Screamed a shrill voice in front of her, snapping her back to reality. "What is wrong with you?" The small, fairy like creature beat wings that resembled curved neon tubes to bring herself a few inches from Ciel's face, "You are not yourself! Why would you, of all people, sacrifice that many troops just on a whim of a legend? If we're caught, and he isn't here, then we lose, game over! No one, and especially not you, would take a risk as stupid as that!"

Ciel's smooth complexion started to fall apart as her lip trembled, and tears welled in her eyes, she finally gave up the façade of a straight face, and broke down crying. "I-I'm sorry, c-commander E-elpizo pressured m-m-me to; I did-didn't want t-to b-be out here in-n th-the first place…"

The snap of a twig snapped the three out of their varying states of sorrow, surprise, and guilt. The team's heads collectively shot their gazes to the place where they heard the noise. They were immediately terrified by what they next saw; a small red light, bobbing closer through the trees. Another one faded into view behind him, and another, two more, five, ten. A whole army of red lights bobbed back and forth, swaying mindlessly as they slowly grew brighter.

"Oh, crap!" Milan said under his breath as he lifted Ciel, and pulled her along until she was running along with him. Milan pulled out his radio, and screamed into it as loudly as he could while still running, "RUN! Arcadians!"

Ciel glanced behind her while she ran, and saw the holders of the red lights, clearly visible now that they were out of the forest overgrowth. The red lights resided right in the middle of a circular blue and white head that rested over a slumped neck and back that were covered by pale blue body suits. Small pieces of either blue or white tech suit(4) armor covered the arms, legs, and chest. These monstrosities stepped with a mindless pace that chilled the bones merely to see. Each bore on their arm a large plasma rifle that was held straight out in front of them, and aimed directly towards the three resistance members. They were the Pantheons.

Ciel screamed as her foot snagged under a protruding root, and fell over Milan, knocking them to the ground. Milan stood as quickly as possible, and lifted Ciel up with him, but before they could begin their flight again, a noise far worse than the Pantheons reached their ears. The roar of turbines and the crack of trees being flattened in their wake.

"Crap! They brought the Golems with them?" Milan yelled as he began running again. Just as Milan had spoken, monstrous, golden transports pulled up along side them, bearing many more Pantheons crouched on the top and hanging off of the sides. Milan reached over his back, and pulled a long blaster out of a holster, and began to pick them off of the sides. While the transports were still moving, the hatches on the back slowly lowered themselves, and thirty-foot tall, gold and silver bodies began to pour out, gliding along side the transports on similar turbines. He and Ciel weren't moving fast enough, and Milan knew it, he knew they would close them off, he knew he would be retired. He immediately pulled a second blaster from his back, stopped, and began firing wildly all around him to destroy any and all enemies he could.

"Milan! What are you doing?" Yelled Ciel as she stopped and tried to pull him away.

Milan lowered his gun and slid to the ground, "It's over… we've lost." He said disparagingly, smashing the ground as hard as he could with his fist. "They won't kill you; you're a human, all they can do is put you in a detention cell for thirty years, but me? Me they'll retire without a second thought. I'm just trying to go out with a bang."

"Don't say things like that," Said Ciel, kneeling down beside him, "We'll get out of this, I know we will, we just can't give up!" She stood, and pulled Milan up with her. A gasp escaped the girl's lips as she saw what lay before her, and she grasped Milan's shoulder tightly. The Golems had surrounded them, and the Pantheons were circled around the golems.

One of the Golems had raised its miniscule head out of the chrome shield that it was typically hidden under, and was staring at the three with tiny golden eyes, as it analyzed its objectives. The tiny head seemed to finish its calculations, and raised itself up even farther, revealing a cannon barrel.

"Commander! Look out!" called a voice behind her. Ciel watched in horror as the barrel began to glow green, and one of her own solders flew out of a tree, landing between his leader and the Golem. The Golem's weapon had finished its preparations; Ciel screamed as she saw her soldier engulfed by a green diffusion laser; dissolved into thin air. The Golem's "objective" had been reached as far as it was concerned, so it immediately turned, and trampled nearly twenty pantheons as it returned to the transport to wait for its next objective.

Milan seized the opportunity, and ran straight through the path that the stupidity of the Golem had just revealed, pulling Ciel with him. The Pantheons reinstated their pursuit, but could not catch Milan and Ciel for the confused state they were in. Milan, Ciel and Passy, who had shut herself down to prevent herself from being stolen, broke past the forest edge, and into a large clearing.

"Ciel, look!" Milan said in awe at what he saw on the edge of the clearing. A small, tarnished, golden inlayed, chrome colored door lay rusting on its hinges against a small sandstone building that had nearly fallen into ruins.

"Oh my god!" Ciel gasped, "Milan, is that…?"

"Yes, Ciel, I think it is…"

Ciel squealed shrilly, and immediately ran over to the door, and pulled on it as hard as she could, but to no avail. "I suppose I should let you handle this?" She said, stepping back and scratched the back of her head sheepishly.

"Haha, I guess so, now move back." Her boyfriend chuckled as he pulled one of the blasters off of his back, and pointed it towards the door.

The door didn't move for the bullet that erupted from the blaster any more than it moved for Ciel's bare hands. Milan lowered his gun dejectedly, "Then what in Sheol are we supposed to do?" He said, running forward and kicking the metal shield that separated the three from their objective.

"Milan!" Called a voice from Ciel's shoulder, "I thought yesterday you said I could hack through anything! I feel unloved" Passy said sarcastically as she glided off her post, and over to the control panel on the doorframe. The small, Fairy-like creature simply flew towards the small port on the lower corner of the panel, and disappeared into it. In mere few moments later, she reappeared, and, without a word, snapped her fingers towards the door, and watched with satisfaction as it slowly lit up and began to slide away with a jerk.

"Passy, if you couldn't hack like that, I would have killed you by now, you know that, right?" Said Milan as he started in.

Milan, Ciel, and Passy found themselves in a dimly lit, miniscule circular room with barely enough room to stand. A dim light emitted from half-powered lights on the walls, and a small control panel glowed ominously on the wall.

"Aaagghh!" Milan said, punching the control panel, almost breaking it, "It's not it!" Before Milan could let out a long string of words far too obscene to mention, a rumble sounded through the tiny room, and the floor started to fall.

Milan opened his eyes to see a dim fluorescent light shining down through the half open, malfunctioning door that lay on the opposite wall. They must have fallen into an old maverick lab from the old reploid wars, either that, or he was still knocked out, and was in a relapse malfunction. Milan saw Ciel slumped against a wall, and a small computer chip that was Passy's mainframe. Milan sat up, and sent a sharp pain shooting through his head. The lutenant rubbed his head to lower the pain, and stood slowly. He walked over to the door, and began to pry it open until it was wide enough for him to fit through, and stepped into the room beyond. The outside room was dimly lit, and computers flickered and hummed ominously along the walls. Milan turned around to awaken Ciel, but froze in his tracks when he saw, through the half open door, a glowing reddish circle hovering around in the shadows. A scream erupted from the usually calm captain's lips, and the gun on his back flew out of it's holster and immediately fired enough times to take out a golem. Milan sighed when he saw the empty blackness again from the door, but cringed when he heard what happened next.

"What is wrong with you?" The irate squeal reached his ears from the doorway. The reddish light came again, but this time emerged from the doorway, and a small, very irritated fairy-like animal floated up to Milan, "You idiot!" Screamed the still fuming Passy,

"Do you realized that you were less than a foot away from blowing off Ciel's head? I can't believe you!" she continued to fume, "If you weren't so freakin' trigger happy, we'd be a lot better off! You're a hindrance to this entire resistance-" She would have continued, but a hand wrapped itself around her mouth, and most of the rest of her head. Milan stepped past her wordlessly, and slipped through the door back to where Ciel lay, half sitting against the wall.

"Hey," he said softly, grabbing her shoulder and shaking it lightly, "Ciel, we found it!" His girlfriend slowly lifted her eyes, and looked around the room, and, moaning uncomfortably, leaned forward to better take in her surroundings. Within minutes, the pair was walking back out to where Passy waited, and continued through the next door.

The third room revealed a hundred yard long bio-mechanic disaster. The ruinous paneling on the walls was falling apart, and was only held up by the mossy vines that had wrapped themselves around it in so many places. The ground was covered in a layer of thick mud, on which rested almost a foot of slimy, greenish swamp water. Milan stood at the door, ready to alert the other two if the Arcadians followed them.

Ciel stood near the middle of the room, and hardly contained her excitement as she stepped on to the podium-like stand in the center of the room. She fell to her knees in the elation of the sight she saw, praying a prayer of thanksgivings to whatever force had caused this turn of events. Her eyes watered, and she sobbed out of pure happiness, for There, tethered to a console forty feet above them by many power and transfer cords, was the wonderful thing she had been hunting down for almost a year.

A limp head hung with closed eyes from the torso that was held by the transfer cords above. Long locks of shining, golden hair fell, matted and dry, from the back of the red and black helmet that covered most of his face. One of his arms was nonexistent, having fallen apart, leaving cords, oil tubes, and frame beams hanging just as dead as the rest of his body. His black body suit was old and faded, and the red and white tech suit over it was ripped in many places and obviously not in a working condition.

Ciel Stood, still crying, and ran to the computer that supported the dead half-man which sent her into such fits of joy. Ciel's fingers clacked across the keyboard with record speed as she attempted to bring the computer online. Her eyes sparkled as the statistical readout of the robot came onscreen. She pushed another set of keys, and gave the order to re-route all energy in the facility into the transfer cables. Her spirits fell from the dreaming state they had gone into at seeing the large red "error" banner flashing across the screen at her.

"Aaaaagghh!" She screamed as she kicked the computer. She stood, fuming, over the console, and tried the input code again. The "error" did not leave. She kicked the computer again, but her tirade was cut short by a scream from the doorway.

Milan was running farther into the room, shooting his weapon over his shoulder at the pantheons that had begun to flood into the room. Ciel screamed and ducked to avoid crossfire, and watched a hole appear in the now blank, smoking computer screen.

Ciel's head fell dejectedly, knowing that without that, there was no way to recover the man who was so treasured for such unapparent reasons. The Pantheons poured through the door, and Milan was shooting frantically, trying to clear a path out of the room, but every one he felled was replaced by two more.

Milan had become fed up with the fruitless effort to clear a path, so he decided to risk everything on a frantic rush through the growing ocean of pantheons. He rushed through them head on, screaming uncontrolledly, trying to make it to the door.

"Milan! Noooo!" His sobbing lover screamed as she watched him disappear into the shifting mob of blue and white bodies. She waited in horror as the Pantheons began to stay still in a circle around her. She sobbed periodically, and wanted with all her might to stand up and run, her face buried in her hands, but the mindless drones would shoot her down before she could take a step.

"I do believe that this is yours." Snapped a sharp voice as a large green object flew through the crowd of Pantheons, and landed on Ciel. Upon seeing what the object was, she embraced it immediately, and began to cry uncontrollably. Milan's hand raised itself softly to caress her cheek, and slowly, he began to rise from his position in Ciel's lap, but stumbled, and fell to his knees in front of her, unable to move any further.

"Pitiful." Said the same voice that had addressed Ciel before Milan was thrown at her. The Pantheons stepped aside to create a corridor large enough for one man to walk through. A splash in the green water heralded the man that was supposed to walk through that corridor. The dark blue boot that first came into view sent chills down the three resistance members, followed by another boot that carried the rest of the figure that sent that fear so deep into the pitiful looking group on the other shore of the sea of Pantheons. A black body suit ran along the burly thighs that supported the torso that was covered by a thick, blue tech suit. The forearms were covered in the same blue tech armor, and a helmet of the same hue rested upon his head. But his eyes, oh the dark, red piercing eyes that glowed dimly from under the rim of his helmet. Those eyes were what struck such fear into all that gazed upon them. Those eyes that resembled deep, endless voids; all light that fell on them was sucked in to a silent death, never to come out again. No light resonated from them, but a dim glow, neither shadows nor light, fell slowly out like a dead, bloody mist.

It was these eyes that stared down on Ciel, Passy, and Milan. These were the eyes of Megaman X. "So, this is all that your 'wonderful' resistance can muster to recover such a legend as this?" He said in a sharp, accusing tone. "As I said before; Pitiful."

"You little…" Milan said, standing with a grunt to face X.

"Now, now, there's no need for harsh words, let's do try to make peace here." Said X in a calm, refined voice.

"Shut UP!" Screamed Milan as he reached for the weapon on his back, whipping it out in a flash, and pointing it at X's head, "You know full well that only one of us can leave here alive today, and I intend to be the one who does."

"On the contrary, I planned on both of us leaving this place today, and, in fact, I intended for us to be comrades." Replied the Leader of Neo Arcadia.

"Shut up, I have the upper hand here, so don't try to negotiate."

"Oh, the upper hand? You call being wounded with a woman and a cyber elf in the middle of an army of ruthless killing machines the upper hand? If that is what you call the upper hand, then by all means, yes you do have it." Chuckled X.

"But I have my weapon against the leader of the Neo Arcadian army's head. And that, I do call the upper hand." Milan smiled smugly as he said these words smoothly.

"Is that not the leader of the resistance army behind you?"

"Perhaps, but our soldiers are not mindless, and will wipe you out without a fight."

"It does not matter anyway." Said X quickly, raising his hand to Milan's forehead, knocking the officer's arm out of the way, and instantly transformed his arm into a long, deadly looking cannon. "Because I have the upper hand anyway you look at it."

Milan stood defiant, and attempted to reposition his arm so that at least a standoff could be found. X's cannon fired a single, flaming, sharp blast with no hesitation, ripping a smoking hole through the officer's head. Milan fell with a slowness that Ciel could not bear to watch. She screamed and reached her hand out in a vain attempt to stop her lover's death. She instantly stood and ran to him, and embraced his dead body, and cried of over it, tears streaming uncontrolledly down her face.

Passy hovered over by Ciel's side, and tried to comfort her. "Well, well, well, what have we here?" Said X as he bent over towards Passy. "An unused Cyber-elf? What a waste of such a true power…" His hand shot out towards the small cyber-elf, and seized her mainframe immediately, producing a squeal of surprise from the tiny fairy.

"PASSY! No!" Ciel screamed disparagingly.

"Are you joking?" Chuckled X, "You mean that you are actually attached to this bit of data, this tool?" X began to chuckle even harder, and then burst out laughing, "Ahahahaha, hahahaaaa, oh my god! You humans are so weak! Growing an attachment to a mere computer chip and a hologram? This thing in my hand was designed to be used, and if you are too pathetic to do so, then I will!" With that, the dark blue tyrant threw the tiny elf towards the dead man's life support with deadly accuracy. The hologram of Passy's small body dissolved as the tiny mainframe inside her body connected perfectly with the tiny slot on the transfer cables. Tiny energy streams traveled along the nodes on the outside if the chip, and were sent into the tiny computer on the side of the cables, lighting up the screen. Millions of messages were sent across the screen within the span of a few seconds, as the ever-present vitality readings of the dead man slowly increased.

"You monster!" Screamed Ciel as she stood, and tried to charge towards X, but a snap of his fingers brought two Pantheons forward from the mob to restrain her.

"Now, now, you'll get over them when you come with me to live in the paradise of Neo Arcadia." He said softly as his finger lifted her chin. Ciel's mouth opened with incredible speed, and closed down as hard as she could force it to. "Agh! Why you little…" X growled, and grabbed her by the neck. "I was going to pardon you for your actions and let you live with us in paradise, but obviously, you won't comply, so you'll have to stay in confinement until you learn to see things our way."

Darkness. It was all he had known for a hundred years. Yet, why was he only now realizing it? What had happened to rouse him to a state where he knew things? Beyond the realization of the darkness, there was also feeling. He felt his body, he felt that his legs extended from underneath that body, he felt a floor underneath these legs and body that had suddenly attached to his consciousness. Finally, he felt a face. He didn't know if it was relieving, pleasant, disconcerting, or uncomfortable, because it was all of these things at once. He noticed that there was noise as well. He heard a high, whimpering voice, a deep, arrogant voice, and many beeping, clicking, or otherwise small and repetitive noises. He also felt that there was something past the shadows that he saw. He tried to feel eyes on the face he had noticed earlier, and finally did. He gained control over them, and slowly opened them. H seemed to be looking at a bronze colored floor, and a pool of greenish water all around it. He slowly found control over his neck, and tried to lift it to see the voices that were around him. But when his neck tried to move, pain shot all the way up and down his neck and back. He screamed from the pain, and apparently attracted the attention of the two voices he had heard earlier.

"Secure him and bring them both back to base. Take the girl to an empty detention block in Arcadia." He heard the deeper voice saying while the high pitched one continued to whimper. He felt many hands grabbing hold of him, and unimaginable pain going to all parts of his body. His vision was obscured from the pain, and his vision began to go white. The last thing he saw was a young girl in pink being dragged away by two blue figures.

PointCast is a form of communication using only lasers to transfer sound. Used mainly for relaying top-secret messages because they are much harder to track than typical radio waves.

2 A Cyber-elf is only a computer chip suspended in a hologram, so it is difficult to "touch" a Cyber-elf. Instead, the heat given of by the hologram creates a warm, tingling feeling in the skin.

3 A cyber-elf is a program with specific abilities, designed to help humans and reploids alike. A cyber elf is designed with a mind and conscience of its own, but are designed to be used in a computer system, and die immediately afterwards.

4 Tech suits are worn by most warriors in the modern day. They are pieces of bullet proof armor that analyze battle information and allow enhanced flexibility and agility.


	2. the fallacy of friendship

His vision again became clear, and the first thing he saw was a steel floor underneath him. He felt hands gripping his shoulders, and a stabbing pain still resonated through his body. He tried to lift his head again, but before he could, the hands holding him let go, and he fell to the floor with a thud. From his position on the floor, he watched two pale blue figures walking away from him.

He tried to feel his arms just as he had felt his eyes earlier, and only found one. He tried to move it, and found that he was able to, but not without some discomfort. He pushed himself onto his knees, which he found could also move. He chanced to move his neck again, and discovered that it was also in working condition. He glanced down at his shoulder where he had sensed no arm earlier, and found a short stump, twisted and gnarled by years of age. He found he could rotate the stump a small amount, but no more than that. Slowly, and very uncomfortably, he pulled himself onto his feet, and tried to walk around.

"Discovering our new body, are we?" Chimed a deep, arrogant voice from the hallway.

"Who are you?" He asked, surprised to find a deep, young man's voice coming from his own mouth.

"I'm surprised at you! Even though you're memories are erased, I expected you to remember your best friend!" He chuckled flippantly. "Oh well, my name is Megaman X, and I am the leader of the wondrous nation of Neo Arcadia."

"That was simple enough" Replied the other man, "So who am I?"

"You, my good man, are Zero, the legendary reploid(1) who saved the world with me countless times in the elf wars(2)."

"So why am I here now?" asked the newly dubbed Zero.

"To help me in my ideal." Replied X, an enthusiasm and awe coming into his voice, "You are here to help me wipe out the resistance, and create a Utopia for all humans here, with me in Neo Arcadia. We will serve the purpose of protecting the humans like we were originally meant to do!"

"Resistance? Who are they?"

"Oh, I forgot how little you know about our world. The Resistance is a small group of reploids who oppose use, believing that we have illegitimately labeled them the mavericks that they are, and retired them unnecessarily.

"Mavericks?"

"Goodness, you don't remember a thing, do you? A maverick is a reploid gone bad. They believe that their greater strength over humans entitles them to do whatever they want. They are evil, and must be wiped out."

"So how do I know if you're really the good guys? How do I know you aren't bluffing to get me on your side?" Zero did not quite know what was coming out of his own mouth, he just spoke with instinct.

"Ahahaha, we've lost none of our sharp wit, now have we?" X chuckled, "I suppose that you wouldn't be a worthy soldier without it. You can't trust me, Zero, not yet, but once I've shown you the ruination of this world, and the peace that ending the resistance will bring about, you will be among the most avid Neo Arcadians."

Zero saw no harm in seeing what X had to offer, but he decided with no hesitation that he would see both sides of the story. He didn't feel as though X was telling him everything. "So, are you going to do something about my arm?" He asked, deciding to at least take advantage of the resources in front of him.

"Ah, of course, please, come with me."

Zero was taken through a long maze of dark blue corridors, lined with doors, pipes, and consoles, to a long medical room, lined with empty cots(3) on one side, and operating beds on the other.

"I'll leave you here with Dr. Thais. Zero, come to the command room to see me after the operation is finished." Said X, turning to leave, "Don't kill him now, you hear doctor?"

"Ah' understand sir." Chuckled the stout little reploid who was apparently the overseer of that medical room. "Well, my, my, my, Ah' never thought Ah'd see tha' day tha' legendary Zero was brought back teh' life. But yeh'll be needin' a new arm Ah' reckon. Just lay on tha' Operation bed over there, and Ah'll take care of everthin' else." Zero, a little apprehensive, walked over, and lay down on the operating bed. "Don't worry, yah' won't feel a thing." Zero's last thought was that 'you won't feel a thing' wasn't very reassuring, before an electric anesthetic(4) was injected into his motherboard, and he slept instantly.

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"There ya' go, good as new." Was the first thing Zero heard as he opened his eyes. "'Twas a bit o' a toughie, yeh're an old model, Ah' was lucky Ah' had tha' right parts to put it together." Zero felt through his body, as he had done before, and found a new object protruding from his right shoulder. He gained control of it, and brought it up to his face. A long black arm, the front half covered by a red piece of brand new tech armor, and trimmed with gold, shimmered below the florescent lighting of the medical room.

"Nice work doctor." Zero said, testing the flexibility of his new arm. He had no idea why he had taken so easily to the world he was in, but he found himself able to speak, listen, and even defend himself in a verbal combat easily. Zero walked very professionally out of the operation room, before realizing that he didn't know where he was going. The doctor laughed heartily when Zero stepped back in the room to ask directions. "Mastah' X should be in tha' command room, it's down the corridor, out of tha' medical wing, n' just 'round tha' corner from there."

Zero said 'thank you' again, and walked where he had been instructed by the doctor. He came into a large, round room, covered from walls to wall with glowing consoles, statistic displays, and ghostly silent operators. Zero was stunned by the sheer size of the room, which easily covered three hundred meters in diameter, and stretched far beyond visibility, becoming a black canopy that stretched an unknown distance into the sky. Zero reached an arm out to grab what he took to be a worker, or a menial of some kind, by the shoulder, and ask for directions.

"How _dare _you!" Screamed a high, shrill voice at the presence of Zero's hand on its body. Before Zero could even take the slightest account of whom he had tried to ask for directions, a hand placed itself over his own, grabbing it very tightly. He felt his arm twisted around, and found that his feet were falling out from under him. Before he knew it, he was on the ground, under a bright monitor, looking face up at, apparently, the wrong person to ask directions from. "Who do you think you are?" The same shrill voice yelled at him; he could not see her (he assumed it was a female) face, because the light from the monitor blinded him. "Who in _hell_ gave you the right to touch the prestigious Leviathan, one of the four guardians of Master X?" At these words, a long, vicious looking red spear protruded from the shadows that hid his attacker. "I should kill you where you lie, and not breathe a breath of regret!" With every word the voice spoke, the spear made a mock thrust towards Zero's chin, as if toying with the idea of killing him.

"Now, now Leviathan, Mister Zero is only a few hours old, do give him a little time before threatening him just for touching you." Zero heard the voice of X coming towards him and his attacker, whose name was apparently leviathan, as well as saw X's shadowed figure approaching the shadowed one apparently named leviathan.

"Fine, Master, but if he ever touches me-" A slap cut her sentence short, and Zero slowly rose, as the spear had fallen off to the side with a harmless clang.

"You pompous little twit! You step out of line like that one more time, and you are the one to be killed!"

Zero stood slowly from under the monitor, and saw X standing, his hand still raised in a menacing position over a beautiful young woman lying on the floor.

"Wait; really, I was the one who was out of line." He said quickly

"Ohh, look at us, being all sensitive to the women. Don't get caught off guard though, She looks harmless enough, but your distance would be well kept." X said, swiftly turning and walking towards the center of the room.

"I apologize for earlier," Zero said, offering his hand to Leviathan, "I suppose it was improper for me to touch a prestigious lady such as yourself so abruptly."

"Well, well, aren't you awfully chivalrous, especially towards a woman you hardly know." Leviathan ignored Zero's offered hand, and launched herself off of the ground, sending herself high in the air with a simple flick of her feet. "In today's world, that can be a very dangerous thing." She continued after landing very composedly on her feet.

"I put my integrity and self-respect above my life." Zero replied, surprising both participants in the conversation, with a highly refined tone of voice.

"Well, you _are_ an odd one, aren't you?" Replied the now intrigued, and somewhat flirtatious young girl as she twisted a lock of deep blue hair around her finger, and looking very innocent. "I think I would like to get to know you more, what say we find a private little place where we can be alone, hmmmm?"

Zero wanted desperately to go with her, after a single glance at her body; he had felt something he was not already accustomed to from his previous life, he felt a desire to hold her, to have her want him, simply to be near her. She had a perfect hourglass body; tall, slender, smooth, and covered by a small, tight, blue tech suit. She had deep red eyes that shimmered and sparkled like water, and long, soft-looking dark blue hair. But there was something else that Zero felt, he couldn't understand it himself, but he knew that there was something different about Leviathan. Zero wanted so desperately to go with her, but he knew he had to talk to X first.

"I'm sorry, but I just can't right now, X wanted me to talk to him, and after that little episode with you two," Leviathan rubbed her sore cheek resentfully, "I'm not sure I want to get on his bad side." Zero said with great reluctance.

"Fine, I know what it's like to be on the master's bad side, I suppose I'll see you around. G'bye!" she said in an exaggeratedly girly tone, and winked at him as she walked past.

Zero shook his head. He couldn't understand what exactly she was getting at, but it seemed like a guilty pleasure. Zero wondered if females were this hard to understand a century ago or not. Without even looking, Zero inadvertently saw the command screen, which was not hard, considering that it took up over one fourth of the circular wall. He spotted X standing and observing the statistical readouts on the wall, and went up behind him, and went to tap his shoulder.

"That was Leviathan, of the four most elite warriors in my army. She is arrogant and immature, but her combat skills are unmatched." Said the stern reploid before Zero had touched him, and without turning around. "As soon as someone better comes along, she's going to be gone."

"That's a little harsh, don't you think? She's programmed as a young female, and humans at that age are very immature and flippant. Give her a reprogramming if you hate her personality so much." Zero replied. This reply was met with the Arcadian commander's fist pointing straight towards Zero's forehead. Before Zero was able to even take in what had happened, the hand in front of his face pulled back, revealing a menacing cannon inside.

"You dare give me an order?" X snarled, "I tolerate insurrection from none, including you. You will never _ever_ give me so much as a suggestion without my permission. Understood?"

"Master X, with all due respect, sir, please, allow me to take this one out. I haven't gotten to perform an execution for weeks! I'm just itchin' to kill sumthin'." Yelled an excited teenage voice near the edge of the podium-like stand that was raised on the far end of the room from where Zero had entered.

"That will not be necessary, because Zero here has learned his lesson, and will not be so insubordinate next time, now will he?" Replied X, lowering his cannon. "Now what are you doing here, Fefnir?"

"I came to report that the squadron of resistance members we found in the forest has managed to regroup and take out three battalions and a team of golems."

X's cannon was out in a flash, and within seconds, nearly fifty flashes of light had flown from the end of his arm, and left a two meter wide, smoking black hole in the wall just behind Fefnir. His eyes were glowing a dangerous red, and a look of rage that exceeded all comprehension crossed his face. "GET TEN SQUADS, TWO FULL GOLEM TRANSPORTS, AND ONE OF YOUR OWN SORRY ASSES IN THAT FOREST NOW! I WANT THOSE RESISTANCE MEMBERS ALIVE FOR QUESTIONING!" He roared to the burly red reploid named Fefnir beside him.

"Come with me, you don't want to hang around the master in one of his moods." Fefnir whispered to Zero, pulling him along off of the platform.

"And SOMEONE Clean up this mess in the wall!" X continued to fume.

"So you're new here?" Fefnir asked after making sure they were out of X's earshot. He wore a thick red and white tech suit that made him look far larger than he really was. A red visor covered his eyes, and apparently displayed combat information. His left arm bore a monstrous cannon that resembled a red and white wolf's head, and reached almost to the ground when he stood straight.

"And if I am?" Zero replied calmly.

"Whoa, whoa, no need to get defensive or anything. I was asking a simple question." Laughed Fefnir. "It's no problem being new, but you look nothing like any of the other soldiers, in fact, you look like a really old model. What year(5) are you?"

"Actually, I have no idea."

"How can you not know even your own model year? What happened to your motherboard?" Fefnir asked incredulously.

"All I know is I was suddenly aware of my existence, X took me here, and nothing else"

"Creepy. Well, if you feel the need to talk to me, ask any soldier with a red emblem on their shoulder." He said, as he turned and walked through a door that opened on it's own for him with a sharp hiss, and closed automatically behind him with a similar noise.

Zero was about to continue along the corridor before he realized that he had no idea where he was going. Zero was about to enter the door, when he was again stopped by a sign saying "authorized personnel only" Zero swore, and began to contemplate whether entering to find directions was worth whatever punishment he could receive. Just when Zero had decided it wasn't worth it, and he'd find his way on his own, the door hissed open again, and what was obviously a raw recruit stood in the doorway.

"Sir! Master Fefnir apologizes for his lack of courtesy, and would like for me to show you to the troop quarters, Sir!" He barked with a salute and a clap of his feet.

"At ease soldier, I'm no more superior to you than you are to Fefnir. At least, I don't think so." Zero replied, caught off-guard by the strict honorable bestowed him.

"Y-yessir." Replied the young man, apparently also caught off-guard by Zero's lack of formality. "A-allow me to show you to your quarters."

Zero followed the young man down a maze of blue corridors, passing innumerable branches along the way. They talked the whole way too. Zero learned that the name of his escort was Michael, and that he was a drafted human recruit, he also learned most of his life story, many quirky little facts, and that Michael was a very enthusiastic and animated person; it only took about a minute to reach the barracks. "These are the 1233rd infantry barracks, which is the newest regiment. This is where Fefnir told me you would probably be staying." He said, "If you ever want me to help you, I'm in the 1185th unit, so just ask Fefnir where to find us!"

"Goodbye, Michael." Zero said, somewhat glad to be rid of the talkative boy, as he turned in to the door, which hissed closed behind him. Zero was greeted by a loud noise from a rambunctious group of men mostly clad in their underwear. His reception was immediate silence as the soldiers stood stock still and eyed the stranger warily. Zero walked through the aisle of bunks in the long room, looking for anyone who might be in charge.

"Who are you?" called a tall, angry-looking man in a very contemptuous voice as he stepped out of the crowd of soldiers.

"Why is that of importance to you?" Zero replied, still advancing towards the man.

"Because I'm in charge here, and if you don't want to be reported, I suggest you explain yourself to those in superior positions to yours." Said the man, pulling a pistol out of one of the uniforms hanging over a bedpost, himself being in only an undershirt and blue jeans.

"You don't have the balls to shoot me." Zero said, still advancing, instinctively knowing he couldn't allow his adversary to get an edge up in the conversation.

"You sure you wanna test that?" the officer said, his finger closing more tightly around the trigger.

"And if I am?" The pistol let out a resounding _WHOOM _as it loosed a long, thin golden stream of energy that flew over Zero's shoulder. "Like I said, you don't have the _balls!_" He emphasized his last word with leap that sent his red-capped knee flying into the man's stomach. Zero's opponent was knocked two meters back into the steel wall with an echoing _thud._

"You're a dead man now." Said the victim of Zero's assault as he stood from his position slumped on the floor, a drop of lubricant fluid leaking from the corner of his mouth,

"So you're a reploid, I suppose you _literally _have no balls." Zero replied arrogantly while his opponent stood, bringing a chuckle out of the human soldiers in the group around him.

"Shut up!" The man yelled as he lunged for Zero, forgetting the pistol that had fallen to the ground beside him, using his fists in a mad attempt to cause Zero all of the harm he could. Zero barely sidestepped the attack, and watched the man's fist collide with a white-gloved hand that immediately gripped it tightly, twisted it around, and threw the man to the ground.

"What is the meaning of this?" yelled the tall, slim reploid that owned the fist that took down Zero's opponent in mere moments. Thin, slit-like eyes looked at the man with contempt from under a highly ornamental green helmet. "You know Master X's rules about fighting in the barracks, officer Ferguson. I expect you to be the one to uphold them."

"I apologize Master Harpuia, I was provoked." Replied Ferguson as he stoos to brush himself off and address this 'Harpuia'.

"By whom?" Replied what Zero assumed to be another of X's guardians.

"Him." Replied Ferguson, pointing a finger at Zero.

"How did this happen?" asked Harpuia, continuing in his refined, very clean-sounding tone.

"I apologize, sir, I knew not the rules of these barracks, and will not repeat the offense." Zero replied in an instinctive military tone.

"You must be Zero." Harpuia spoke with a refined British accent, and in a very dignified manner, "I have heard of your presence here, and I must say, I am indeed honored to have such a legendary ally." He bowed very slightly, and brought himself back to meet Zero's gaze. "And I apologize for Ferguson over there, he most likely did not know to whom he spoke. And now, I would like to properly show you to your quarters; Master X sent me to fetch you after the cameras detected unusual behavior in these barracks."

"With all due respect sir, but Fefnir sent me here, saying these were my quarters." Zero replied, not quite fully understanding.

"One of the first things you must learn here: _Fefnir is an Idiot._ And besides, only hellspawn can live in a hellhole like his barracks, and even _they_ have a hard time of it." The green-clad reploid both snorted in contempt and laughed at his own remark, Which brought many a dark glare from the soldiers around him. "Follow me, and I'll show you where you were meant to be quartered." He turned around, and headed out of the door.

Again Zero found himself heading through the alternatingly deeply shadowed and overly brightened corridors, someone leading him to another room. For the first time, Zero found himself having to look up to the person leading him, seeing as Harpuia was the first reploid to be seen by Zero that was taller than him. Zero noticed that they walked by the command room, and saw inside a different sight: first that a pair of extremely large doors had opened up on the opposite side, and a large, golden, and very boxy, tank-like vehicle was rolling onto the middle of the floor, which he noticed was now quite well lit. Lined up along the edges and around the small square rim just above the tracks was a horde of Pantheons, of which Zero had only glimpsed in the halls. Now they were out in full force, and Zero saw their true, cold terror. Many teams of Pantheons had gathered around, each standing lifeless and dead, awaiting further orders. Zero only glimpsed this sight momentarily, as he had to follow Harpuia, who had just turned into another corridor. This hall was highly garnished and far more refined than the others; it was crafted of polished white marble, with extremely ornate, nearly to the point of gaudy, trimmings. What few doors there were were old fashioned, and formed of rich mahogany or maple wood, with brilliant gold handles.

"Here we are." Harpuia said, stopping abruptly, and turning towards a door that looked much the same as the others. He opened the door for Zero, and bowed very stiffly as Zero walked past him into the room. "Please, enjoy the accommodations, and feel free to ask for anything you want." He closed the door behind himself as he left and headed further down the corridor.

Zero sat on the soft, luxurious bed, and closed his eyes, watching an internal display appear, showing all of his vitals and statistics. He watched the internal clock, displaying the time of day, and saw that it was actually quite late at night. He gave an internal command to change the display of the clock, and watched it tell him that he had only been awake nearly five hours. Despite this, and the fact that his energy displays were rather near full, something outside of his system, something he could not explain, and felt quite familiar to his feelings around Leviathan, told him he was exhausted. He reached up, grabbed his helmet as it released at his command, and dropped it to the ground. His breast plate and leg-pieces did the same, as well as his left arm, but the most he could do with his right arm was take his glove off.

"Idiots." Zero said to himself as he gave another order to his body, this time releasing his body from the confines of the tight undertech(6) around him. It fell to the floor as he slipped into the bed, and almost immediately fell asleep.

1 A Reploid is an android with their own abilities to think and make decisions. They were introduced after Megaman X was found by Dr. Cain, and replicated to create others. Since this, Reploids have become an invaluable part of modern society, becoming criminals, soldiers, and even political leaders.

2 2 The Elf Wars began after the Cyber-elves were created. The Cyber-Elves were designed to help humans and reploids alike, but they were fought over often, and eventually, wars broke out over them, and devastated the earth. More reploids than humans survived these battles, but the humans, who had more fragile bodies, were almost wiped out, leaving only a few million humans alive on the earth. Aftermath of the Elf Wars is evident all throughout the earth.

3 3 In this case, Cots refers to a pod-like structure in which reploids rest and recharge after sustaining injury.

4 4 An electric anesthetic is a depleted EMP (electromagnetic pulse). It shuts down all electronic energy going on within a certain vicinity, but, unlike an EMP, it does not wipe activated electronics.

5 5 Reploids, while not having models in the same way cars do, have certain features that define the time period they were built in, which can also define age. 22XX (current year) models are typically very practical, lacking in flare, and contain a thematic color; blues, reds, etc. These are due to lowered costs from the war. This is opposite to previous century 21XX style with impractically bright colors and many ornamental attachments, in almost a celebration of the end of the original elf wars.

6 6 An undertech is the thin, form-fitting suit that fits under the regular tech suit, and serves as a bridge between the tech suit and the reploid. Using microscopic conduits, it send information to and from the tech suit, enabling the thought commands available to most reploids


	3. Of Danger and Justice

Zero awoke rather early, feeling well rested, although still quite confused about everything that had happened. He pulled on his undertech, and snapped his tech suit on over it. He had a difficult time getting his hair to go through properly, but, after having to redress thee times, he forced it to feed through the back of his helmet, and walked out of his room.

He walked back down the marble corridor, hoping to find his way back to the command room. He found his way out into the dimly lit corridor that he had learned went almost all the way around the command room, and followed it until he found a doorway leading into it. Zero stepped inside, and saw it already bustling with silhouettes of pantheons, soldiers, mechanics, and many another variation of reploids. He walked warily to the large command screen, being careful not to have another run-in with someone like Leviathan.

"Good morning, my friend. I hope you enjoyed your accommodations last night." Spoke a familiar voice beside him as he neared the giant display on the wall.

"Good morning to you as well, and yes, indeed I did." Zero replied, not trusting the commander since his many obvious displays of strictness and temper the previous day.

"Very good, now follow me." X beckoned him to the screen, and placed his hand on a small screen on the wall. After a brief light show, his hand had apparently been accepted, because a panel in the wall hissed loudly as it slid slightly back into a recess, and slowly began to roll into the rest of the wall, revealing a long, black hallway, the end of which Zero could only barely glimpse as a flickering orange speck in the distance.

"Well? Shall we go in?" X asked as he stepped in himself.

Zero walked in after him, walking blindly towards whatever caused the light that flickered in the distance, being extremely careful to stay away from X, knowing what would most likely happen, were he to accidentally run into him. As the two neared the end of the long hall, Zero recognized the faint seams of a more refurbished, comforting room, not a cold, war-like rawness, or old-fashioned wood planking. A blending red and yellow light flickered and crept into the hall, fading into blackness as it turned the corner. He turned that corner and felt the soft light fall on his face along with a soothing warmth, all caused by a crackling fire in a stone hearth on the opposite side of the room. Zero saw Leviathan and Fefnir sitting in a pair of old sofas around the fire, obviously relaxed. X continued walking, and wordlessly beckoned all three of them into a door to the side of the fire place. As the two arose from the stupor they had fallen into in their resting places, the door opened for X, who had continued towards it, revealing a harsh, bright light in the room on the other side. Zero followed, although disliking the ugly light, he even more disliked X's potential wrath. The two guardians stood, without even noticing Zero's presence behind them, and followed X into the door, letting the cold, harsh light back into the fire lit room. Reluctantly, Zero followed as well.

The fluorescent lighting instantly fell on Zero's face, and almost blinded him, being the most powerful light he had been under since his awakening. His eyes soon adjusted, though, and he saw Leviathan, Fefnir, and Harpuia sitting all next to each other, as well as a reploid in an almost completely black tech suit, trimmed with edges of white, all in a design resembling that of a gothic cathedral. Small red rubies dotted around his head, each glowing ominously. He wore a long, tattered cloak that fell to the floor around him, and covered all that was visible of him above the long desk he stood behind. A large, blue reploid built to resemble a buffalo, his horns formed purely of ice, a crouched, shadowed, and cloaked old dog-like reploid, a small white and red reploid with a torch on its tail resembling a monkey, and a tall, proud reploid, following the common design of the birds of prey. Each set of four sat in a row on either side of a large, tall backed, white chair in which sat X in a very relaxed-looking pose, head in hand.

Zero was entirely unsure of what to do, and stared blankly around the room, while eight of the nine others stared at him, expecting him to move. X, however, sprang into action.

"Oh, where are my manners? Zero, this is Phantom, the one guardian you had no chance of meeting yesterday." He gestured towards the tall, dark, cloaked reploid beside the other three guardians. "And literally so, there is no newcomer with any chance of finding him when they want to." This remark brought forced laughter from the crowd around him. "And these are their top generals:" he said, pointing to each one in turn "Aztec falcon," the bird, "Hanumachine," the monkey, "Blizzack stagroff," the buffalo, "and Anubis Necromansess III," the dog-like one. "We are here to discuss our next move in the war. Would you care to join us?"

Zero hesitated, but didn't want to cause X to go berserk, and said, "Yes, I would."

"Wonderful!" X clapped his hands together in a very feminine manner, "Now, if you would, go stand by phantom behind the desk over there, and we'll begin." X turned and sat in his high, white chair. "Now, observe!" X opened a panel cover on the arm of his chair, and pressed a few buttons, dimming the lights and bringing up a holographic display, showing a shifting, glowing ball of light, statistics and readings shifting and changing all around it. "My friends, this is our next, and perhaps our final target."

"A cyber elf? What the hell are we wasting our time on something so trivial for?" Fefnir interrupted.

"Oh, but, my friend, this is anything _but _an ordinary cyber elf." X replied. Zero felt as if he was being unnaturally, and even dangerously friendly. "This is a new cyber elf, designed with uncommon power by a minority resistance. They are trying to halt our plans by using it against us. They had an intelligence leak, and now, we are going to intercept the transport, and take it for our own."

"What are we going to do with it once we recollect it?" Spoke Phantom in an oddly distorted voice, "It will be too dangerous to simply store away, and to use it would bring too much destruction to the site it was used, were we to use it, what would happen were a battle to erupt in an area populated by humans?"

"A wonderful question," X replied. "You see, we will use this elf to end the war. Once we recover the elf," He pushed a few more buttons, and brought up a map showing a red line along what looked to be a highway of some sort. "From the caravan transporting it somewhere along this road," It showed a blue line cutting across the red line, and moving towards a large blue dot that Zero assumed was where he was now. "We will send it by train to this laboratory, where they will duplicate the elf." A blue line continued from the blue dot across a large river. And to a second, smaller dot. "We will then bring out a disposable army that can wipe out the resistance in one fell swoop!"

The lights returned to their normal state, and X seemed sad that he was no longer able to play with his war toys. "Sir, I have foreseen the plan you set before us, and I have created such a tactical composition to remove the cyber elf, temporarily cut the resistance supply lines, and destroy the entire caravan." Spoke Anubis Necromansess III in a deep, ominous tone.

"Very good, again you are quite well prepared for the meeting, let's have it!" X replied.

"Observe." Anubis glided slowly towards the wall, his cloak flowing behind him as if his legs were nonexistent, sending chills up the back of Zero's neck. Anubis placed his hand on an access panel by the door, and connected straight to the system, bringing up a map of the route that the resistance caravan was to be taking. The map the zoomed in on a bridge crossing a canyon, and became a three dimensional map. "First, we will send Fefnir and a battalion of his men to the bridge," It showed a swarm of tiny soldiers slide onscreen, "As soon as the caravan arrives on the bridge, you will open fire," several models of large trucks came onscreen, the tiny soldiers began firing upon the trucks, stopping them. "Once the caravan has stopped, Fefnir and his team will plant charges across the road, and continue fire." The miniature soldiers continued firing against a team of soldiers that came from the caravan. "Then Harpuia will send a team of his men, via air transport, and infiltrate each truck until they find the Cyber-elf." A pair of airplanes lowered more tiny warriors onto the trucks, and the lifted them back up. "Fefnir's team will retreat, and detonate the charges." The far left team ran back off of the screen, and the bridge fell apart, taking out a large portion of the caravan. "Harpuia's jets will take out the rest of the caravan, and recover any other recoverable cargo, and then all will retreat." Anubis' hand left the panel, and the display disappeared.

A single pair of hands clapped slowly as X rose from his chair in a standing ovation. "Wonderful! Absolutely marvelous, as always, General Necromansess. I do believe that this is the plan we will follow. Now, Fefnir and Harpuia, go gather your troops and prepare them for the battle: We will commence when they finish the project, which should be in approximately ten days. The rest of you are dismissed." He began walking towards the door, and the others began to do the same.

Zero ran ahead to catch up to X. Once walking beside him, the commander spoke; "Is there something else you need?" without looking towards Zero.

"Yes, uh… actually," Zero was finding his usual confidence crumbling before the fear incited by X's presence, "I was wondering, about where you found me, When I woke up, there was a second voice I heard, I-it sounded like a girl's, and I, well, I was wondering, well, if I could see her?"

"There would be no problem, but I am inclined to ask you why." X replied.

"Well, you see, I simply wanted to learn as much as I could about the world we live in, and, well, I supposed that speaking to a resistance member would give me a little more insight into the way they think."

"Very wise of you, Zero, Indeed, I will show you to the detention block she is kept in." X started out into the command room, Zero following.

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"Here you are" X said, punching a password into a panel on the wall beside a heavy metal door. _TTTSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHH..._ The door hissed aside as Zero stepped in, and saw a truly pitiable sight. The cold, bare room was hardly lit by dim, flickering fluorescent lights, and years of old, rotting scum lined the walls. Not even a cot hung on the wall.

"What the hell do you want?" sounded an angry voice from the corner. A shadowed lump that Zero had not noticed roused from it's nearly perfectly camouflaged position. The figure of a slender young girl stood silhouetted in the shadows, not surprising Zero at all, which seemed in turn to surprise her.

"A talk is all." Zero replied in a calm tone.

"You might as well execute me, I won't tell you anything." She snapped back.

"Who ever said I would execute you?"

"What else would you do with me?"

"Talk. That's all I want to do, I'm not evil; I just want to hear your side of the story." Zero looked up behind him, and instantly regretted having said that, for a small, black camera stood mounted on the vertex of the walls.

"Don't worry about that, I rewired it the second I got here, it thinks it's watching an empty room with me crying in the corner periodically." The young girl stepped out of the shadows. She wore a bright pink human tech(1), somewhat dirty from her sitting on the grimy floor for a day. Her long blonde hair fell in a few strands about her face from under her helmet. Her face was young, and her body looked no older than 16.

"I suppose we should begin with formal introductions. I am-"

"I know who you are." She cut him off, "Everybody knows who you are. I, however, am Ciel, leader of the resistance force." She gave a mock curtsey.

"How cute." Zero replied.

"I try. Now I suppose you just want a run-down of what's happened since you left, right?" Zero nodded. "Ok then." Ciel leaned back against a wall, And Zero followed suit after she mentioned that it would take a while. "Well, I most definitely wasn't around when it started, but my grandfather told me all about it. He said the maverick wars escalated to a terrible level, bringing destruction to every corner of the earth. many evacuated to space, but the war even followed them up there.

"Finally, in Sigma's 'endgame' as he called it, both he and X were killed; Sending the morale of the maverick hunters spiraling downward. Soon, the greatest hunter to ever live gone, the remaining mavericks rose up under a new, faceless leader. And began to wreak havoc on the barely recovering earth yet again. Almost immediately after the onslaught of the so-called 'Neo Domine', a new research was developed, and cyber elves entered the world. This weapon was at first exclusive to the hunters, but a leak soon sprung, and the warriors were evenly matched. The world was nearly destroyed on several occasions.

"Finally, a single warrior who nobody managed to identify drew their leader onto a space station, and there defeated him, and banished him in a stasis chamber to an outer rim of the solar system. There was a short time of peace and recovery before X was found again. Some how, his body was whole, and so were most of his systems. The recovery effort continued, and finally, I was born. Soon after I turned 16, X was reanimated, in an effort to help the world restart.

However, he soon took too much power for himself, and began the Neo Arcadia movement. He also vowed to destroy all remnants of the mavericks. But he went berserk, and began killing off anyone who supported even an improvement to his system. And even some who were entirely loyal to him. Now, my resistance wages war against him, and recently, on top of everything else, the world's natural resources ran out completely, and synthetics are a poor replacement."

"So, an energy crisis?" Zero asked.

"Yes, and I'm afraid that the few benefactors we have won't supply our troops unless they hear from me. The entire resistance could starve to death!" Zero could sense a true tone of care in her voice.

"Oh, that won't be a problem."

"What? What do you mean?" Ciel seemed incredulous.

"Because, I'm breaking you out."

Footnotes:

1. A human tech is a tech suit designed to interface with a human's mind. These came about far later than Reploid tech suits, due to the great amount of biotechnology and organic interface required to make one. Even in the current age, they are extremely difficult to come by, and are worth a small fortune.

Author's note: YES! The one you've all been waiting for! The first level finally begins! Sorry for the delay, it would have been up sooner, but I was on a week long computer ban. I'll try to speed it up next time. And please, give me some feedback people! If you read it, I seriously want to know what you think.


	4. the blood on my hands

"Break me out?" Ciel was incredulous.

"You heard me. But don't take this as a guarantee that you can trust me." Zero said.

"A lot of resistance members have tried to escape before, and none of them made it out. What makes you think you'll be so different?"

"I thought I was supposed to be a legendary, warrior, why wouldn't I be different? And besides, Its not like you can command the resistance from in here."

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"Move!" X shouted as he shoved the security guard, office chair and all, and bent over to look at the computer screen. "Has anything happened recently?" He asked the guard.

"N-no sir." The man replied, entirely terrified.

"Damn!" X hissed, and immediately began typing furiously on the console that wired into the security cameras from detention cell f-b-13 through f-c-19. All except f-c-18 fizzled out, and X saw only a little girl crying in the corner. "You Idiot!" He roared at the security guard, "Did it ever occur to you that the leader of the resistance wouldn't sit in the corner and cry for 24 hours straight? She hacked the damn camera!" X's Cannon flew over his hand, and the guard's head popped 2 feet in the air, and landed with a _Plorp_, as blood began to flow freely from the confines of the arteries it was so long imprisoned in. The officer's body slumped forward, bleeding even more profusely than his head.

X returned to the screen, and began to type again. He restored the camera, and watched the current scene flicker onto the screen. He waited little after hearing the resistance girl utter the phrase 'break me out?'. He smashed the computer screen and stormed out of the room. He ran at top speed to the nearest barracks room, and composed himself slightly before walking in. The door slid aside, and the rowdy quarters immediately stood at attention in varying degrees of nakedness, saluting their leader.

"Ferguson!" barked X.

"Sir, Yes Sir!" Officer Ferguson yelled back as he stepped forward from his place in line, and turned to face X, hands folded behind his back.

"Assemble your men as quickly as possible with a battalion of the pantheon, and a golem."

"Sir, yes sir!" Ferguson saluted.

"When you have finished that, head to the prison hold, and bring everything in room f-c-18 to me. That is all." X turned on his heel, and headed back to the command room.

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"Ok, we might be able to escape, but we'll need weapons first." Said Ciel.

"That may be a problem, but I'm sure I can get into the armories without a hassle. X seems to be in an exceptionally happy mood today." Zero replied. "I'll Go get'em as soon as we figure everything else out."

"What do you mean? We don't have anything else to figure out! We blow open the door, and then we run like hell!"

"And what? We run straight through an enemy territory on foot with a monstrous army trailing behind us that is obviously much faster?"

"So what do you suggest?"

"The hangar." Zero said, "I saw it last night, it's off of the command room, It won't be hard to find."

"How do you expect to be able to pilot any vehicle they have in there?" Ciel asked.

"I don't." Replied Zero quite plainly.

"So then we get trapped in the hangar with no way to leave, and an army cornering us against a three-hundred-foot drop. I liked my idea better."

"But I'm the one breaking you out. I could just as easily repeal my offer if you don't comply."

"But your plan is rash and stupid, there's no way we could guarantee our survival, while with mine it's at least probable." Ciel was getting impatient and infuriated by the calm way Zero was acting about a matter of life and death.

"With yours, we'd be trying to navigate through a city we know nothing about. If we manage to get a vehicle, especially a flying one, we would be able to head straight out." Now it was Zero who was getting impatient.

"Look, you!" Ciel was obviously utterly enraged now, and whatever string of curses and insults she would have let loose on Zero was cut short by an explosion from the door, and a loud clang as said door was thrown against the wall.

The young girl screamed as soldiers began to poor in through the smoke left by the detonation, wielding machine guns, and obviously aiming them towards them. Zero felt himself losing control of his own body, and dove through the smoke, flying out on the other side with a soldier's head in his hands, the rest of the soldier flailing helplessly behind him. Zero flung himself around, bringing the soldier in front of him, sandwiching the poor man between himself and the wall. Zero Heard Ciel scream again, and grabbed the soldier's head again, swinging him around the other way, and sandwiching him yet again on the opposite wall, again next to Ciel. Zero's own consciousness sat by and watched his body grab the handgun from the limp soldier's hand, and began to fire at the other soldiers. Zero stepped in on his body just in time to keep himself from killing them, and directed his fire only to incapacitate the advancing soldiers. When all of them were unconscious, unable to move, or had fled in terror, Zero turned to Ciel.

"Run! Follow me and don't fall behind." He flew out the door, and Ciel did her best to follow. Zero had held on to the gun, and realized how incredibly lucky he was to have done so when he entered the hall. Zero looked to either side, and on his left was a 5 1/2-foot high wall of blue.

The hall was jammed with three hundred of the pantheons. Almost as soon as he had entered the hall, every single one of the cycloptic red eyes turned to face the staggeringly outnumbered reploid that they had been told to terminate. Zero again watched his body take control, and blew of every single head he could see; at least fifty pantheon bodies littered the floor before Zero was knocked back by one of his own lasers returning, and hitting him straight in his chest. As he recovered, He watched the pantheons advancing, and saw a single one in the front wielding an electrically charged sword on its right hand. Zero rolled back, and fired at it again, but it held it's sword up mere moments before he fired, and Zero watched his shot fly back at him again. This time, He managed to roll backwards again as his beam was being redirected. Zero leapt forward, ignoring his gun, and grabbed the Pantheon's arm, and twisted the device driver straight out, and plunged it into the great red eye of its previous owner. He retracted the blade, and threw it straight through the army, creating a domino effect, the pantheon's bodies falling along a straight path. Zero finally realized the futility of trying to destroy all of them, and fell back to help guard Ciel. His mind worked frantically, trying to find a way to get out. He then saw it; the fluorescent panels in the ceiling.

"Shield your eyes!" He shouted to Ciel, and she did so without question. He raised his pistol, and pointed it at the light, Closing his eyes and turning his head away.

There was a brilliant flash as the beam connected, and melted a hole through the tube of light, releasing the gases inside, and causing it to shatter into thousands of miniscule shard that rained down upon the pantheons, causing them to look up. Zero's internal tracking system locked onto a particularly large shard of the un-frosted glass used to shield the tube, and fired again, causing his beam to refract, sending hundreds of tiny beams storming through the pantheon ranks, wiping out nearly all of them. Ciel screamed again, as one of the final remaining pantheon raised itself on a leg and a half, and pointed its gun at her. A slow whirr sounded, and Zero dove for Ciel, not entirely removing her from the weapon's rounds.

Ciel winced as one of the many machine gun rounds pierced her side, leaving a gash along it. Zero took no notice of her wound as he laid her down, and leapt to wrench the pantheon's head off. In mere moments, Zero had finished off all of the remaining soldiers, and helped Ciel to her feet.

"There'll be more soldiers soon, we need to leave quickly, and I think we're going to the hangar." Zero smiled, and led Ciel in that direction.

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They ran until they were just outside the command room, fortunately finding no other beings on the way, and hid behind one of the many doorways to the monstrous chamber. Zero could see the corridor curve around, and end in a flat wall, which Zero was quite sure was the hangar. They slipped inside, and were unnoticed in the shadows of the command room, and walked quickly along the wall to the massive doors that led to their destination. They reached the side of the doors, and Zero placed his palm on the registration panel beside the door, and watched as it scanned it.

"What are you doing?" Asked Ciel, not knowing that Zero was treated by the system as a general.

"They apparently added my name to the system nearly as soon as I got here." He replied.

The words "Identity accepted, welcome to the hangar, Zero." Flashed on the screen, and the doors slid open with a loud _Hisssss…_, and turned every head in the command room.

"Crap." Said Zero very plainly before running into the open doors, and to the panel on the other side. As soon as the doors registered that a being had crossed its threshold, it closed again. Zero rammed his fist into the console, completely derailing the registration system. He then led Ciel along the rows of vehicles, looking for something useful. He frantically tried to remember something. He tried to scan them to uncover something about them, but to no avail. He ran by helicopters, jets, jetpacks, gargantuan transportation trucks, nothing, nothing, Nothing, NOTHING! He couldn't remember anything, and had no idea what to do.

"I told you, we have no idea how to pilot any of these, We're just stuck here until they blow the door down, and we have no way of getting past them. You'll be retired, and I'll be either executed or tortured, and it's you damn fault!" Her voice was cracking, and she winced in pain as the adrenaline in her body died down and she felt the full sting of the wound in her side.

"Don't worry," Zero said as he stooped to catch her as she fell from the pain. "I promise you I'll think of something. And if I don't we can sure giv'em hell before they take us." Zero was again finding his voice controlling itself, because he didn't think he had any idea how to smooth talk a girl like that, but he was watching himself do it before his very eyes.

Ciel stared into his eyes and found herself oddly charmed by the cool grey they seemed to emanate. She felt happy in a way she could not explain; she felt like Milan was holding her again. At the thought of her dead boyfriend, her eyes began to well up, and she buried herself, sobbing, in Zero's shoulder, hardly knowing what she was doing, but somehow, it felt right.

She shrieked as she was cut short by a loud _CLUNG! CLUNG! _As a large something pounded itself against the hangar door. Zero turned quickly and guarded Ciel as they both waited in terrorizing fear for the door's destruction to complete itself. _CLUNG! CLUNG! CLUNG! _The dent-making something powered relentlessly at the door, smashing at a steady beat, sounding like a rhythmic tribal drum, calling forth with agonizing tedium the sacrifices to the mountaintop, beating powerfully, painfully in the foolish human attempt to please the pagan gods they so worshipped. _CLUNG! CLUNG! CLUNG!_ The door wouldn't hold long. _CLUNG! CLUNG! _Zero tensed every cybernetic muscle in his body, and crouched lower. _CLUNG! CLUNG! _He was ready to spring. _CLUNG! CLUNG! SHKOOM!_

A large, circular, low dome shape flew into the hangar, and over Ciel and Zero's heads, smashing into a helicopter behind them. A large golden monster floated through the newly created door, and stared down at them. Sliver and chrome ran in many patterns up and down the conically shaped body. Zero and Ciel's hair fluttered slightly as the turbines under the massive body brought their blowing wake across the doorway, and over the two escapees. The tiny head atop the beast lifted itself from the metal collar that covered the bottom half of its face, and a small barrel on its chin began to glow green.

"Zero, Run! There's no way you can take down a golem on your own!" Ciel yelled over the roar of the turbines, taking her own advice, and running off to the side. Zero stood stock still as the golem stopped charging its weapon to follow its other target. By its moronic reasoning, as long as Zero was still, he would stay long enough for it to terminate him later. The golem turned toward Ciel, and slowly powered towards her. Zero saw a hatch on the back of the golem slide open, and a hand floated out as the hatch closed behind it. A pair electromagnetic redirectors(1) positioned themselves in-between the hand and the golem, as the hand reached forward, and grabbed Ciel around the waist, holding her alongside the golem. Ciel screamed when she felt the hand grab her, and tried to struggle her way out of the iron grip, but to no avail. Zero was at an utter loss as to what he could do, before a voice sounded behind him.

"Who was it that had no balls, hmmm?" Officer Ferguson called mockingly from the doorway the golem had created.

"You." Zero growled, turning to face him.

"Yes, me. You see, after master X overrode that little stunt your girlfriend pulled with the camera, he sent me with my troops, a team of pantheons, and my new little toy over there, to apprehend you."

"Bastard!" Zero yelled as he leapt forward to kill Ferguson.

"Ah-ah-ah… I wouldn't do that if I were you, you see," He pulled a small controller out of a compartment that opened up on the side of his tech suit, "With the push of a button, I can tell that golem over there to snap that girl like a toothpick."

Zero stopped short, only a few feet from Ferguson. "Fine, what do you want?" He snarled.

"Simple, for you to come with me." Ferguson chuckled at Zero's inability to do anything.

"Over my dead body!" Said Zero, though he made no movement.

"Well, If that's how you feel," Ferguson reached for a small knob on the controller and began cranking it up slowly with a sick satisfaction on his face. Ciel screamed in fear and pain as the metal hand closed more tightly about her.

"Ok! Fine, I'll go." Zero hissed.

"Very good. Golem, drop the girl." Ferguson said. The golem's grip loosened, and Ciel fell, panting, to the ground. "Now, if you would, I thin-." His eyes rolled back into his head, and he fell to lie unconscious on the ground. Behind him was a small glowing ball of light.

"Good God." Spoke a voice from inside the ball, "He was getting annoying, I just had to shut him up."

Zero was baffled at the sudden presence of the glowing bubble, but grateful for its knocking out his adversary. "Who are you?" He asked.

"Not only is that unimportant, but I am not at liberty to discuss such a matter in our current situation." The ball replied. Zero did not see how something unimportant could be confidential enough to not be spoken of, but he did not want to begin an argument with neo arcadia nipping at his heels. "There's no time, half of neo arcadia will be here any minute. Take this, and get out of here." At these words, Zero's systems sensed something very odd that they registered as a "Teleportation sequence" Zero watched what looked like a handle to something materializing before his eyes. "You will know what to do." And with that, the ball disappeared. Zero stooped to pick up the now fully materialized handle, and flipped a small switch on the side, and watched a long, thin green spire appear from the end of the handle. And, like the light had said, he knew what to do.

Ciel stared in horror as the golem stared down at her, though it was not going to make a move after it had been ordered to drop her, She, however, did not know that. She lost her balance from her weakening legs, and cowered in fear at the gaze of the stupid monster, remembering what happened to one of her own soldiers being engulfed by the weapon contained in the barrel that now kept vigil over her. A green flash flew through the entire golem's head, and Ciel turned away and shut her eyes as she awaited the death she knew was to be flying at her from the chin of the golem. She turned back very timidly as she felt nothing, and saw a headless golem tottering precariously after losing the guidance system in its head, and Zero standing very triumphantly, his legendary Z-saber in hand.

Zero stood, looking down at Ciel and laughing inside himself. His happy, proud attitude was diminished when his feet suddenly felt very hot. He jumped very frantically from the golem, and almost tackled Ciel as he shielded her from the impending explosion. It didn't do much. The two skidded and rolled along the polished metal floor, almost to the edge the hangar. Zero stood, slightly burned on his backside, and somewhat sore from being thrown across the length on the great room, but otherwise okay. Ciel, however, was unconscious, and obviously seriously burned and bruised. He lifted her slowly in his arms, and began to look around for a way out. He ran as quickly as he could without hurting Ciel anymore, looking for other vehicles he could escape in. Then it happened again: he just knew what to do. A Red phoenix(2) stood in line with many other hoverbikes, Glistening brilliantly under the bright lights. Zero's eyes went wide as he saw the beautiful object, and ran to it, ogling the vehicle that somehow seemed so familiar.

Zero situated himself with Ciel in his lap, his arms making a makeshift seatbelt for her when they grabbed the handlebars. Zero revved the engine, taking in the beautiful hum of the anti-gravity boosters, and the low roar of the engines as they turned over. After the mere flip of a few switches, the bike lifted off the ground, and growled in anticipation of its impending flight ahead. With a roar and a whoop from Zero, The bike soared into the air and out of the exit to the hangar, destroying a small team of pantheons that was running up behind him to apprehend him.

"WAAAHHHHHOOOOOOOOO! YEEEAAHH-HAA-HA!" Zero yelled as he turned a barrel roll, and flew of into the desolate wasteland beyond the edges of the metropolis below him.

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The first thing Ciel noticed as she began regaining consciousness was that she was in pain. The next thing was that she felt cold, then that she was moving, probably very quickly, and beyond that, that she was in a person's lap. She opened her eyes to a periwinkle blue-purple sky with long, thin, eventide clouds laced with golden orange. Then she realized that she was all of a sudden flying through one. On the other side, she felt somewhat more awake, but even colder, and wet.. She finally put two and two together, and looked down, only to find that she was about 250 feet off the ground.

"AAAAAAHHHHH!" She squealed in a very high voice, and began to uncontrollably squirm very vigorously and kick her feet; stomping them on the feet that rested on a black and red footrest below her. She hated heights. She was about to scream again, but a black hand clapped itself over her mouth.

"Please don't to that again," spoke a soft, deep voice in her ear, "It makes it very difficult to drive."

Ciel twisted her head around to the owner of such an absurdly calm voice at such an absurdly high altitude. A smiling Zero was behind her, his head bent slightly around her shoulder so he could watch the skies properly, obviously. His hand released from her mouth, and returned to its position on the handlebar. "What the hell are you doing?" She asked him, having to yell slightly, as her voice was subject to the wind.

"Like I said, Breaking you out." Zero replied happily.

"On a motorcycle?" Ciel was absolutely outraged.

"What was I supposed to do? Jump in a helicopter and smash all of the buttons?" Zero smiled superiorly.

"Anything but a motorcycle!" Ciel cringed to one side as the other tipped slightly.

"Get over it. It'll be nightfall soon, and unless we can get to your base within a couple hours, we'll have to lie low for the night. They're bound to send search parties to sneak up on us in the dead of night. Those mountains look like a good place for the night." At this Zero turned the bike very sharply and headed to a small string of mountains and tall rock formations. Ciel cowered low in Zero's lap as he barrel rolled through a large ring-like rock formation. Zero started circling as he lowered the bike in a valley between two mountains.

Zero lifted Ciel off, and tried to set her on the ground, but found her to be faint and weak from the flight, and carried her to a small overhang at the base of the mountain. Zero ran back to the hoverbike, and flew off to one of the dead trees hanging around the valley. Pulling out the blade that the odd little light had presented him with earlier (For which he found a convenient sheath on his back), flipped it on, and quickly sliced a few branches from the tree. He heaped them on the ground under the overhang, and held his sword near it. The heat that emanated from the blade was more than enough to quickly ignite the dry branches into a dancing, crackling fire. Zero made sure Ciel was comfortable in her resting spot on the ground, sat back against a rock, and set himself on sleep mode

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Ciel awoke with a sore back from the uncomfortable position she was laying in on the rough rock of the mountain she had seen Zero head to before she had fainted from the dizzying flip and the sheer terror she felt from flying entirely unprotected like that. She tried to shift into a more comfortable position, but found that moving was more painful that staying still. The gash in her side hadn't had nearly any time to fully close before they escaped, and her squirming on the bike had most likely caused whatever healing it had gone through to undo itself. She grabbed her side to stifle the new bout of bleeding, and sat up rather difficultly.

"Do all humans sleep as much as you?" Asked Zero from his leaning position against a rock.

"Only when they are rescued from deadly organizations by utterly insane red reploids on hoverbikes." She smiled and flinched at the same time, resulting in a very odd look on her face.

"It's almost dawn, we should head out soon." Zero toyed with a twig in his hands before snapping it and throwing it into the dying embers of the fire.

"Oh, and what about me?" Asked Ciel, "In case you hadn't noticed, I'm wounded." She lifted her hands from the gash on her side, revealing the wound that was very obviously becoming infected, and bleeding slowly.

"I'm sorry, but I don't really have anything I can do about that, I have no cloth for a bandage, and definitely nothing I can use to clean it. We'll just have to get to the resistance base as soon as we can." Zero stood, and grabbed Ciel by the shoulders, holding nearly half of her weight for her. Zero took his hand and placed it over hers, helping her push to stop the bleeding. The blood slowly crawled along Ciel's white, clean gloves, and began to reach Zero's fingers. Her felt the warm, sticky substance slowly reaching his hands, and quickly jerked his hand away. Ciel looked around at him as he let go of her shoulder too. Zero was staring at his hand. The blood wasn't even visible on it, but he stared, eyes wide, at the stuff.

_Blood. His eyes went wide, his pupils shrank. His head pounded, the blood in his brain wanted out. He yelled, it hurt, his head hurt. He saw the blood dripping down his hands. It flowed freely where there was no wound. It pooled around his feet. He was swimming in it; An ocean of the blood of men and machines alike. It churned angrily; It wanted revenge. He wanted it to disappear. It disliked him, he disliked it. He was drenched in it, Robed crimson from head to toe. A child lay on the ground before him, cut in half, bleeding freely. Men ran frantically. He wanted to kill them, they were of no use. He ran, destroying them with his bare hands. Laughing at their dead bodies, laughing at their pitiful attempts of resistance, laughing at the blood he felt running down him so freely. He bathed in it. It felt wonderful. A man with hair in every direction told him to do something. That angered him. He wrenched his head off. The blood began to flow. It gushed. It streamed. It trickled. It dripped. It was gone._

"Zero! Zero! Zero wake up!" Ciel was shaking him violently with the hand that wasn't preoccupied with her bleeding. "Oh Zero, thank God you're alright."

"Wh-what, what happened…?" Zero's head pounded with a massive headache. He was sore, confused, and afraid.

"You started staring at your hand, screamed like a madman, and then you fell on the ground and started shaking like you were having a seizure." Ciel was panting and her face was pale. She had obviously been terrified.

"Come on," Said Zero, sitting up, "I think I'm ok now. Just don't let me touch your side again."

Footnotes:

1. An electromagnetic redirector is a device designed to concentrate and direct electromagnetic pulses, giving the ability to detach limbs from robots, or anything made of metal from anything else made of metal, for that matter, and allow them to merely be controlled by information that can be sent in the electromagnetic pulses.

2. A Red phoenix is a model of anti-gravity motorcycle (also called hoverbikes) that, in Zero's previous years as a maverick hunter, he owned. Designed with a High performance, low maintenance engine, and all the bells and whistles, it was a Porsche among hoverbikes. Zero, being the "man's man" that he was, treated it like his child, and never let a scratch on it.

Author's note:

Well, well, well. Wasn't that fun kids? Join us next time when Zero rapes Ciel! (no, he doesn't actually do that, so don't get your hopes up.) The next chapter will most likely be shorter, and therefore, up faster. The adventure finally begins! There won't be much happening for a couple chapters, but there will be a lot of character development. And by the way, if you're ever going to review my story, please do it now. I'm at a pivotal point in my story, and if I'm gonna fix any thing, it would be better sooner than later. Thanks for taking the time to read this, I really appreciate it.


	5. the agony of popularity

The hoverbike slowly settled down in the ruins of an old city, blowing dust and old pieces of newspaper in every direction as the gravity deflection field pushed them away. He helped Ciel in the direction she indicated, and found a large warehouse in their way.

"In there." Ciel said quietly, obviously being somewhat drained from the 3 hours of flight on the motorcycle with an open, infected wound. Zero opened a side door to the warehouse, and walked into the dim, disused storage area. Ciel directed him to a pile of boxes, and had him slide them away for her. She stumbled over to a spot on the ground, and slid back a panel that perfectly matched itself with the dusty concrete around it. She punched in a quick password, and closed the panel as a crack appeared in a perfect circle in the ground around her, about wide enough for five men to stand abreast across. Zero stepped on to the circle, and helped Ciel up as the floor that had just become an elevator slid downwards. Zero felt Ciel fall against him as they descended, and decided to go ahead and pick her up.

The elevator slowly became lit as a doorway a door materialized from the bottom of it, and quickly sliding entirely into view. The elevator stopped at the doorway, and Zero stepped into a long, dirty hallway, doors lining the sides. He looked to his left and saw a dead end, and so headed to his right. The elevator zipped back up the long tube behind him. He walked quickly down the hallway, looking for anyone who could help Ciel. He started running, still finding no one in the halls at all. Finally, he saw a large room ahead that seemed to have people in it. Zero slowed his pace a little as he neared it, and found that there were many people in the room, and they were bustling about doing something Zero could not figure out. He stepped into the room, trying to find someone to help. For a few seconds, none took notice of him, but soon, a short, extremely thin man in a green uniform and hat, obviously no older than sixteen, turned and dropped his jaw in surprise. His buddy (who was probably quite a bit older) standing next to him turned to find out what was so fascinating. For a moment, his jaw dropped as well, but he quickly composed himself, and started to say something, but before he could begin, His smaller friend started to yell.

"It's Zer-!" He began, but a hand flew across his face, instantly stifling him. The older one looked around, and hastily pushed Zero out into the hall, the younger one trailing behind. Out in the hall, the soldier pushed Zero against the wall, and stared at him.

"I can't believe it! You're back!" He whispered. "This is incredible! Do you have any idea what you mean! You're back, you're finally back!"

"If I'm so special, then why did you push me out here?" Zero replied, disliking his being pushed out of his first chance to get Ciel some help.

"Because if you stayed in there, you'd get mobbed, and Ciel needs help. I'll take her in there, and get her to Cerveau, _then_ you can get mobbed." He took Ciel very gingerly from Zero's arms, and returned to the large room. Zero heard his voice yelling, "Ciel's back, and she's hurt, someone get Cerveau!" The buzz of noise became more furious as a few new recruits began to scream frantically, and the rest tried to orchestrate getting Ciel to whoever this Cerveau was entirely separately. The noise became louder and louder, until finally the room fell silent as a voice yelled;

"Calm down, calm down, I'm here. Bring her to me and I'll fix her up in the medical lab." There was a final little rumble of conversation and movement, the whirr of an elevator shaft powering up. The room began to immediately roar with suspicion and speculation as the man left.

The soldier came out, and grabbed Zero by the shoulder, "Come on, get in there!" he pushed Zero through the doorway, and started to shout. "Zero! It's Zero! Ciel found him! Zero's back, He's finally back!" Zero stood with a dumb, blank expression on his face, not knowing precisely what to do after having his name called out in such a momentous manner. Every voice immediately went silent, every head turned, every jaw dropped. There was a momentary silence. People were staring dumbly forward for several seconds before a lone recruit shouted.

"Yeeeeaaaaaahhhhh!" He was soon joined by a roar of a thousand or so raucous voices screaming at the top of their lungs and raising fists in the air in triumph. Zero was grabbed by a soldier, and passed through the crowd as if he were some trophy that an underdog team had finally won. Some of the people leapt on him, others merely wanted to lay a hand on him. Hundreds of voices welcomed him, congratulated him, yelled at him, thanked him, and a million other things that Zero couldn't comprehend because of the confusion those voices made by smashing so often into one another, turning into a loud jumble of indecipherable noise. Zero was dumbfounded by the sudden onslaught of adoration, and simply allowed himself to be pushed along, not doing anything for himself.

"Thank you so much!" rang in his ears. "It's so wonderful to have you here!" echoed through his mind. He couldn't take it, he was stifled under a million thanks and praises. He was beginning to drown in the sea of grabbing hands and loving words. His eyes stared blankly forward, his mouth hung slightly open, the limpness of his body went unnoticed as he passed through the crowd, riding gently along the passing hands, feeling five grab him at once as soon as the five before just reached the end of their range. The fools noticed nothing. They were like a three-year old first seeing a cute little kitten; squeezing it to death, but only with the best intentions, of course. The impromptu celebration continued for what seemed like hours, though Zero knew not how long it truly had been. A pair of hands fought through the forest that the others created, pushing them laboriously aside, and slowly making their way to Zero. A man followed behind the hands, wearing a technologically advanced visor and a long, pale green robe. His half grey, scraggly hair swayed back and forth as he turned to either side, yelling at the many bodies around him. He reached a pair of white gloved hands forward, lifting Zero's limp form from the practically rioting mob around him. Zero was lifted over the shoulder of the man who saved him, and was carried out of the room.

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Zero came back to himself shortly after leaving the crowd; he was in a small medical lab in a cot along one side of the room. He sat up very quickly, and was sent reeling back in pain as he felt his head hit a very hard, invisible something. He looked to the outside of the cot, and saw a white reflection of a light outside pass through. The cot's fiberglass covering was closed. He heard a set of muffled gasps pass through the covering, and looked to see a large crowd of people looking intently into the small chamber, obviously waiting to ask if he was alright, or if he needed anything, or perhaps if he felt well enough to shake their hand again. The onlookers infuriated Zero, and he frowned as he fell back and tried to look like he had shut down again. Zero listened to the murmurs of the truly stupid crowd, and found that most of them thought that he had knocked his systems loose when he hit his head, and had temporarily shut down. Zero laughed to himself, not letting them see anything, naturally. He squinted very lightly to see the people turning to each other to find out what his neighbor thought about it. The man that had rescued Zero from the mob slid through to the front of the crowd, turned, and addressed them. Zero listened intently, as his voice was deeply muffled by the fiberglass.

"People, please!" He was trying to calm them, "you almost literally scared this man to death earlier. You've got him so terrified that he's trying to trick you into thinking he's asleep. Now please, leave the poor soul in peace for a moment." Some of the soldiers left immediately, but several obstinately hung about. "Go on! Get!" the man snapped, reaching into his coat pocket, and pulled out a tazer-like object, and prodded a few out with it. The rest quickly took the point, and left grumpily. He closed and locked the door behind them, punching in the locking code rather furiously.

"Sorry about them," He said, apparently to Zero, as he walked over to the cot and punched the button that slid the covering away. Zero sat up safely this time, rubbing his head to diminish the last remnants of the pain. "They get a little stupid when their excited in such large numbers."

"What were they doing?" Zero asked, wondering who this man was, and why he was being so considerate of him.

"Being idiots. They've never had such a massive victory like you, and went a little crazy. My name is Doctor Cerveau, I'm the chief mechanic and medical doctor for this facility. It's an honor to meet you Zero." He held out his hand.

"What is it that makes me so special?" Zero asked as he shook the doctor's hand.

"What do you mean? You're Zero, _the_ Zero! You've obviously heard of your name before."

"I have, but I still don't know what's so special about it." Zero replied.

"You're a legend!"

"_Was_ a legend." Zero corrected, "I have no idea what I'm doing here."

"You saved Ciel from the most intensely guarded facility on the planet, that's proof enough for me."

Zero gasped, suddenly remembering. "Ciel, where is she?" he asked, looking around frantically.

"She's on a bed over there. Thanks to you she's fine. That bullet must've been hell, the wound was so infected that I had to cut out nearly two pounds of dead and dying flesh." Zero looked over to a traditional hospital bed, and saw Ciel, lying next to a heart monitor and an IV hookup. "Yep, I don't doubt if she had been a few hours later, she would have lost a considerable chunk of her side, and if she had gone a few days without treatment, she would've died." Zero was surprised; he hadn't expected it to have been nearly that serious. "If you can do that, you have to be something special."

"But I'm not!" Zero said impatiently, "I have no idea what I did, I just did it. And now everybody's acclaiming me as this massive hero, when I have no idea how to be a hero!"

"But you do. You know nothing of your past?" Zero shook his head, "according to records, you were quite the lady's man, a glory hog, and a bit of a showoff. You may not know what you're doing, but your body sure does."

"And yet somehow, I don't find this very comforting." Zero stood angrily as he said this, and stormed over to the door. Since it had been locked from the inside, it opened for Zero, and he found himself staring down a very large crowd of would-be onlookers. At the opening of the door, a pair of them stepped back; they had apparently been trying to listen in on the conversation. However, they had either not heard much, or were far stupider than Zero had once taken them to be, as the mobbing process tried to begin again. Zero felt himself grabbed by a soldier, but before he could be pulled into the crowd, he raised his fist, and smashed it into the soldiers face with such force as to send him into the supportive grip of one of his buddies. There was a collective gasp and murmur as everybody in the crowd took a couple steps back. Zero stormed forward, and the recruit he had hit cowered in fear, but Zero walked straight past him, pushing the people aside. Soon, they stepped away out of fear, and let him pass through a long hall they made for him. Zero broke into a run, not looking back.

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Zero soon found himself standing on a balcony in the early evening. He felt safer out in the open like this, and the sunset was beautiful. The golden-orange sun sank low, entangling itself in the thick, heavy clouds that seemed always to linger around in this world. He was free. He didn't ever want to go back. He had only been involved in this war for matter of days, and yet it had already nearly killed him on several occasions, and created multiple disillusions about him. He wanted to run away, never come back, find somewhere outside of this war that so strongly vied for his addition to their side. Somewhere where nobody would know him and everybody would like him. Somewhere he could just have fun. His dreaming was interrupted when he felt a pull on his long golden hair. He looked around, not knowing what to expect, and saw a young girl with dark blonde hair carrying a tattered stuffed rabbit. She looked to be no more that six years old.

"Are you mister Zero?" she asked him in a truly innocent tone.

"That depends." Zero replied shortly.

"On what?" the girl asked. She was obviously quite intelligent for her age.

"On whether you want to tackle and thank and hug me until I die." Zero was being intentionally cold toward her. He didn't care if she was young, he wanted to be alone.

"Oh, no. Well, I did want to say thank you for helping us, but I also just wanted you to meet my friend mister bun-bun." She held out the torn up rabbit, which Zero took very gingerly.

"Well then yes, I am Zero." He replied, "Thank you for introducing me to mister bun-bun, I'm sure we'll be good friends."

The girl giggled, "He can also help you beat up the bad guys; you can keep him."

"Well thank you very much, I'm sure he'll be a big help." Zero, for the umpteenth time, hardly knew what he was saying, but he felt an odd soft spot for the girl, and apparently, he used to like kids quite a bit.

"Allouette? Allouette, where are you?" Zero heard a voice calling from inside the dark building. A young woman emerged in the doorway, and saw Zero standing next to the little girl, "Oh, Allouette, there you are, come on, it's time for dinner!"

"But momma," the girl replied, "I don't eat dinner!"

"I don't either, but it's polite to sit with your guests, and the refugees are eating too. Now come on!" She walked forward, revealing herself to be a woman no older than eighteen, but by the mention of the two not eating dinner, Zero could only assume they were reploids. But that was instantly swept form Zero's mind after he studied the woman a bit longer: She was beautiful, absolutely stunning, with long, wavy brown hair, and sky blue eyes. She wore a red tech suit trimmed with blue, and a light grey undertech beneath it. Zero slid off of the balcony railing, and stooped to say good bye to Allouette.

"You be good now. I'll see you later." He smiled and ruffled her hair.

She didn't reply at first, but instead tackled him in such a crushing hug as a six-year old's body can give, and said, "Take care of mister bun-bun!", And ran off to the warehouse next door to enter the resistance base.

"I hope she didn't give you too much trouble." Her apparent mother spoke in a British accent, giggled, and stepped forward again to see who it was that her daughter had befriended. She staggered back in a mix of terror and surprise as the blackness of a silhouette removed itself from Zero. "Z- Zero? Bloody hell! b-but, but it's been… and- but… I-I," She stumbled over her own words, bringing out only fragments of them.

"What's wrong?" Zero asked, as he stepped forward, but as soon as he did, she stepped back again, not wanting the distance between them to close at all.

"Y-you, you don-, bu-but I…" She turned and darted back trough the house and headed very quickly back to the resistance base. Zero was entirely taken aback by her reaction, and assumed that he had been passed off as a very unkind person by those who saw the young man whom Zero had "assaulted" as they were sure to put it. He took one last look at the beautiful sunset before he headed towards the warehouse himself.

He soon realized, however, that he did not know the password, and was entirely unable to get in. He sat on a box and pondered. He could try password after password until he got it, but that would take entirely too long, and the password probably changed every few minutes anyway. He could look for another way in, but the entire base was most likely very well sealed off; too well for him to find a way in. His energy levels were still over fifty percent, so he decided to look around the area with mister bun-bun before he tried to get in so desperately. He walked through the ruinous streets, looking at the dead, gutted buildings around him. He realized that there was almost no vegetation around, and definitely no wildlife. The remains of what looked like a large power plant loomed in the distance, attracting thick stormclouds and many a lightning strike, most probably due to a lingering static charge from the few wires and systems left about. He wandered for hours through the streets, not finding much exciting to do, although he wasn't bored; he actually quite enjoyed the peacefulness. Nothing happened, just the broken buildings, spilled and almost entirely deteriorated trash piles, and dark clouds. Finally, a voice sounded behind him. "Zero!" it yelled.

"Zero, where in all of hell have you been?" Cerveau yelled, running up behind him, a panic slowly draining from his face. "The base is in an uproar!"

"Why so much?" Zero asked calmly.

"Because nobody even knew you weren't in the base until Allouette told somebody, do you have any idea how dangerous it is for us all for you to be out here? Neo Arcadia is looking all over for you. If anyone were to be caught outside, the entire base could be blown out of the water. Now come on, you have to get back now!" Zero saw no reason not to and followed Cerveau, though he still didn't quite get the problem with him simply taking a walk.

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It had just gotten dark. Allouette sat in the dining hall, not knowing entirely what to do. Everybody seemed frantic, yet after an hour and a half of it she still didn't know why. Cerveau had left three quarters of an hour ago while the rest of the base seemed to be combing repeatedly through every inch of the base. She pulled her legs up as a pair of soldiers flew between the long bench where Allouette sat and the one opposite her. She was hugging a new stuffed animal, one she very affectionately called "Bun-bun II", between her arms. She finally got up and ran to Cerveau's lab, which had been left open when he left, she wanted to see Ciel. The resistance leader had woken earlier that evening, instantly being greeted by a large crowd of onlookers.

"Ciel?" Alloutte said as she poked her head into the lab.

"What's up, sweetie?" Ciel asked, turning to see one of her best friends entering the lab.

"Ciel, I think I made everybody go crazy." Allouette hung her head.

"Why would you think that?" Her friend replied.

"Because I said that mister Zero had been outside, and then everybody started running around looking for him, I think I might have done something wrong."

"Oh, no." Ciel put her hand on the girl's shoulder. "They're just worried about mister Zero, you did the right thing. If nobody knew he was out there, then he might have been killed by the Arcadians." Allouette gasped at the mere mention of the 'bad guys'

"So, I might have saved mister Zero" Ciel nodded. "My momma might not like that, when she met mister Zero she got all scared of him."

"Oh, dear God…you- your mother met him?" Ciel had just finished putting the pieces of it together, "Um, Ally, baby, can you tell your mother to come here for a minute?"

"Ok!" Allouette gave Ciel a big hug, and ran out of the room. Ciel lay back on the bed, Her wound had nearly healed now, thanks to Cerveau's advanced medical technology she would be up an about by the next evening, or so the doctor said. Ciel had no idea how this situation would play out, though it most likely wouldn't be for the better. She wondered what could possibly unfold from the terrible match-up of events, but she knew it would almost definitely be entirely too much for Zero to take at the delicate stage his emersion into their world he was in. Ciel began to wonder how anything like that could be good for Zero in his condition, but it seemed that there was no way to avoid many things. This situation, however, Ciel was determined to put off until Zero would be okay with it. She didn't know, however, that it would even do anything, but given the incident with the blood, she wasn't about to take any chances.

"You wanted to see me?" Asked a voice from the door.

"Yes, come in." the silhouette in the doorway walked slowly into the darkened lab, and sat in a visiting chair next to her, it was Allouette's mother.

"What was it about?" She asked apprehensively.

"Don't worry, you aren't in trouble," Said Ciel, sensing the fear in her voice, "Actually, I wanted to talk to you about Zero."

"I thought you said I wasn't in trouble." The lady said quietly.

"Don't worry, Zero apparently hasn't remembered you yet, otherwise, you'd be quite elsewhere, and most definitely not so unhappy. And I'm hoping to keep it from getting to that point."

"How are we going to do that? His memories are bound to come back sooner or later, it's only a matter of time before he remembers me."

"Not necessarily." Ciel's voice was getting quieter, "I think his memories are activated by certain triggers. Like when he helped me stop the bloodflow on my wound, some blood leaked onto his hands, and he seemed to start remembering something terrible. I think your name might do the same, so please don't let him know it."

"I'd rather not, it'd only complicate my lovelife."

"I really don't care how, just be truly careful he doesn't hear it." Allouette's mother nodded, "Thank you, Iris."

Author's note: Betcha didn't see that comin', now didja? Major bombshell here, eh? Yes, I know it's nowhere near cannon, but when has anything I've written been entirely cannon, huh? There ren't any new terms in this chapter, therefore, no footnotes! Hoever, if anyone didn't understand anything, just mention it in a review, and I'll explain later. ((In cheesy announcer voice)This offer will expire when the next chapter is posted, no purchase necessary to enter, purchase will not increase your chances of winning, for details, see the mail-in rebate on the inside of this box.) Stay tuned, keep reading, and review.


	6. train wreck

Ch. 6: the start of an absolute

_The soldier came out, and grabbed Zero by the shoulder, leaving bloody marks on it, "Come on, get in there!" he pushed Zero through the doorway, and started to shout. "Zero! It's Zero! Ciel found him! Zero's back, He's finally back!" As he shouted, blood dribbled out of his mouth. Zero stood with a dumb, blank expression on his face, not knowing precisely what to do after having his name called out in such a momentous manner. Every voice immediately went silent, every head turned, every jaw dropped, everyone began to slowly drip blood. There was a momentary silence. People were staring dumbly forward for several seconds, the blood pooled on the ground before them, a lone recruit shouted._

"_Yeeeeaaaaaahhhhh!" He was soon joined by a roar of a thousand or so raucous voices screaming at the top of their lungs and raising fists in the air in triumph at the uproar, blood spurted out of every mouth, dripped down every fist. Zero was grabbed by a soldier, and passed through the crowd as if he were some trophy that an underdog team had finally won. Some of the people leapt on him and smeared him with blood, others merely wanted to lay a hand on him, the blood still covered him. Hundreds of voices welcomed him, congratulated him, yelled at him, thanked him, and a million other things that Zero couldn't comprehend because of the confusion those voices made by smashing so often into one another, splattering blood on him and turning into a loud jumble of indecipherable noise and blood. Zero was dumbfounded by the sudden onslaught of adoration, and simply allowed himself to be pushed along, not doing anything for himself. The hands smeared their bloody palms along his back, a few even stroked his face._

"_Thank you so much!" rang in his ears. "It's so wonderful to have you here!" echoed through his mind the blood now dripped from his slack jawed mouth. He couldn't take it, he was stifled under a million thanks and praises, drowning in blood. He was beginning to drown in the sea of grabbing hands smearing the blood on him and loving words that sprayed him with the crimson substance. His eyes stared blankly forward, his mouth hung slightly open, bleeding, the limpness of his body went unnoticed as he passed through the crowd He was riding gently along the passing hands, feeling five bleed upon him at once as soon as the five before just reached the end of their range. The bleeding fools noticed nothing. They were like a three-year old first seeing a cute little kitten; squeezing it to death, but only with the best intentions, of course. The impromptu bloodbath continued for what seemed like hours, though Zero knew not how long it truly had been. A pair of hands fought through the ocean of blood that the others created, pushing them laboriously aside, and slowly making their way to Zero. A man followed behind the hands, wearing a technologically advanced visor and a long, pale green robe. His half grey, scraggly hair swayed back and forth as he turned to either side, yelling at the many bodies around him, but he bled just as much as they, what did he think he could do? He reached a pair of crimson hands forward, lifting Zero's limp form from the practically rioting mob around him. Zero was lifted over the shoulder of the man who saved him, and was carried out of the room, still dripping blood, dripping, dripping, dripping..._

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Zero snapped out of his cot with a start, breathing heavily. His joint lubrication and coolant systems had apparently overheated, and caused him to sweat like a normal human would. It was Five-thirty A.M. Cerveau had taken him back to the base very quietly, and given him a private quartering room in which to sleep. The dream had disturbed him, he had no idea what was going on; blood seemed to creep into every corner of his subconscious mind. He decided not to allow such things continually ruin his life, so, sitting up in his cot, he repeated his mistake of the day before: hitting his head on the closed cover. He opened it, sat up again, being careful not to hit his head on anything further. He knew already that an attempt for further sleep was futile, and he got up, beginning immediately to search for anything but the annoying tech suit he had worn literally since he could remember. He finally found a closet with a few extra sets of street clothes in it, and started going through it. He settled rather quickly on a black t-shirt, brown leather jacket, and an old, worn out pair of jeans. He walked out of the room feeling much better, and headed to the exit, the place of which he remembered because Cerveau had shown him the way to it just eight hours ago. He left the base, not this time fearing his being locked out, because he now owned a password transmitter(1).

Zero walked slowly out of the warehouse to the old building from which he had watched the sunset yesterday. It was still dark, though the faintest tinges of dawn danced playfully along the broken skyline around him, teasing the night with the pale blue hopes of coming day. Zero stepped one foot on to the railing of the balcony he had been on last night, and did a backwards flip on his way to the roof, which he landed upon the edge of, and ran to the vertex. He was surprised to find such strength hidden within him, and flexed his hand as if to test the tightness of his grip. He sat for hours, simply watching the sun rise, slowly, lifting the dark purply-blue of the night over the city, pushing it slowly, tipping it over to the other half of the world. The pale sky of the early morning was nearly overtaken by the glowing white radiance that the large sun emitted the moment it crossed the horizon. Its glow instantly stretched all shadows to a nearly infinite length, covering nearly everything not straight before its gaze into a darkness not unlike the one it was encased it mere minutes ago. This, however, soon passed, and all was bathed in the soft light of the bright sun.

This massive change took no more than five minutes; Zero was enraptured by the surreal experience. It was the most beautiful thing he could ever remember seeing, though there was little for him to remember. He sat, and watched the sun still slowly rising over the dead city, still trying to recapture the beautiful moment when it arose.

"It's pretty, isn't it?" Called a familiar voice from behind Zero. He turned and saw Allouette climbing laboriously over the edge of the roof. "I come up here every morning to watch it." She rolled on to the roof and started walking towards Zero at the same time.

"But how do you get back in? I wouldn't think they would give password transmitters to children."

"They don't" Allouette sat beside Zero, "My daddy goes on guard duty every morning, and he lets me in." Zero nodded his head.

"But you're up here late, why is that?"

"Because I was looking for you; I wanted to bring you up here to show you, but you already found your way up here." She sat and hugged her knees, "It's almost time for breakfast; we should head in soon."

"Why?" Zero asked, "We can't eat, why should we have to go in?"

"Momma always makes me eat when the refugees from Neo Arcadia do; she says it's just being polite or something."

"Well, I'm not going to be going in, I'm trying to avoid the people in there as much as possible."

"Oh, Well, I guess I'll see you later!" Allouette expertly slid down the roof, continuing down the half-broken off drainpipe, and walked back to the resistance warehouse. Zero sat for several hours, wondering about the odd world he had been plunged so violently into. He had realized how incredibly quickly his entire remembered life had gone by; it had been, oh how long was it again? Only his fourth day of memory, yes; that was it, four quick days. Herein he had killed a man, betrayed an army, nearly gone insane from the euphoria he somehow aroused, and obtained a stuffed rabbit. What a life, what a world! Zero was aghast and astounded at the massive upheaval his return had brought about, as well as hated the populace about him for so taking him by storm. The sun, according to his internal sensors, was beating down on the silent earth abut him at nearly 100°, and it was merely eleven in the morning: apparently the ozone had deteriorated even further. But how did he know that? He could never tell you a thing about the war about him, nor the organizations involved in it, not even a simple meal could he label, yet he knew what the ozone layer was, he could molecularly decompose for you the structure of the ceramic roof tiling he sat on. He knew the most incredibly random and most often useless facts, for that is typically how facts go: when you need them, you know them not, but you will remember them in a life or death situation, but of course only after you have forgotten how to escape the deadly place. This was the life of Zero. He soon lost his train of thought when a second voice came.

"Zero?" He turned to see Allouette's mother climbing far more laboriously an gingerly than her daughter up to the roof, "Zero, are you still up here?"

"Yes, come on up." He stood and reached out a hand to pull her up. He didn't know why, but he felt an urge to help her; make her comfortable.

"Allouette said you were watching the sunrise, but why are you still up here: It's nearly noon!"

"I don't want to be bothered by the mob again; I think it would be better for me to stay out of the base for a while." He led her by the hand to the top of the roof, and helped her sit on the corner of it.

"Oh, are you still going on about that silly thing? Only a few raw recruits are still stupid enough to even talk about you like that, most of them sobered up when you hit that man and took off. And if the new guys piss you off too much, then you can teach 'em a lesson in the effects of gravity upon the reploid's skull." She chuckled at her crude little joke, but Zero was surprised at such a motherly person using such language. Clearly he didn't hide it very well, because she spoke up again. "You're wondering what a mother is doing talking like that, Huh?" She lowered simultaneously her head and voice, and continued, "A war does many things to a person. It does even more to kill another." She pulled a handle similar to Zero's from her back, and turned it on, watching a pale blue light shimmer up and down a long blade it fashioned. She turned the sword slowly, observing the shifting of the patterns as they sped to keep up with the electromagnetic redirector that held the blade in place.

"You've had to fight, haven't you?" She nodded her head solemnly, "I'm sorry, I know how terrible it is to have to kill another,"

"How, you are supposed some kind of massive killing machine incapable of emotion, hell, you even brought about the maverick virus! You can't possibly know what it's like!" She knew that it would be easy for him to know, but she didn't want to admit, even to herself, that anyone else could know how she felt.

"I do." Zero felt like he recognized the involuntary 'poor me' act, he almost felt like he knew the woman sitting beside him like his closest friend, "I can't count those whom I killed, I can't repay my debt to the world, I don't even know why I killed, but now the pain of knowing I took their lives has come to haunt me, the blood is on my hands and it won't wash off."

"That's so sad." She so desperately wanted to scream to him 'It's me, Iris, Don't you remember?' She wanted to say he loved him, to be held by him, to kiss his soft, sweet face again. She couldn't though, she tore her face from the watery-eyed stare it had fallen into, and buried her face into her knees, "I'm sorry, I had no idea! Everyone thinks of you as the weapon they need to win the war, but they forget that you have emotions too! And so you're so sweet and caring, but they just want you to kill for them, I'm so sorry!" She flung herself onto him at these words, and sobbed desperately into his chest, her hands grasping each other behind his neck.

Zero was entirely taken aback by the onslaught of sympathy that was now freely streaming from the young woman beside him. Although he didn't complain, She was, after all, quite beautiful, and, like leviathan, he felt something was right about her. He slowly and unsurely wrapped his arms around her, and, after seeing that she was still sobbing into his chest, he held her tightly to him. Time passed, each held the other gently. It was nearly four in the afternoon before Iris was calm enough to lift herself from his chest. _What am I doing? _She almost immediately thought to herself, not knowing what had come over her before, _I'm married now, I can't let this happen! _She stood, starting to blush.

"I'm sorry, but I have to go now," She covered her face, and ran down the side of the roof, and climbed down in a much more clumsy fashion than her daughter. Zero sat, flabbergasted, not knowing precisely what had happened, but he most definitely disliked the ending of it. He stood, seeing no more reason to stay on the roof, and walked down the roofside himself, entirely bewildered by her actions. He entered the warehouse, and entered the password (Ax1442h3n), and allowed the elevator to take him slowly into the dark well that led to his so unfamiliar home.

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The base was far busier than when he had entered yesterday, although most seemed too intent on their tasks to take notice of Zero, which he liked very much. He walked down the hall, and into the large room where everyone had been gathered the day before, and realized almost immediately that it was very much the same as the command room in Neo Arcadia. A large screen filled a wall, though it was dim; often flickered, and many old, somewhat dilapidated computers had a few tech-operators at them. Cerveau was standing a computer close below the massive screen, typing furiously, and giving several orders to those who came to talk to him.

Zero walked past the room and to the elevator on the other side of it. This elevator was not password blocked, as it was already in the resistance base, and only went down a few stories. The cave at the bottom of the elevator was dimly lit, being occupied only by a few storage rooms and Cerveau's medical lab. Zero swept quickly towards Cerveau's lab. As he entered, He saw Ciel sitting on the side of the bed, the hookups taken out of her, and a bandage wrapping around her midriff. She was reading a book quite intently beforehand, but looked up when she heard the door open. She closed the book, and dropped it on the bed beside her, standing up as she did so. She grabbed her side as she stood up, wincing from the unhealed wound being stretched. However, the young woman soon recovered her balance, standing gingerly as she didn't want to aggravate the wound any further.

"You don't have to stand." Zero said matter-of-factly.

"I never said I did." Ciel smiled, starting to walk towards him.

"And yet you act as though you did."

"Appearances can be deceiving."

Ciel stumbled on her way towards Zero. He stooped quickly, and grabbed her under the arms, and helped her to stand properly again. "Necessities, however, cannot be ignored. You still need to rest."

"It's just the morphine. Cerveau took me off of it only about an hour ago; I'm still a little shaky."

"Sit down at least. You're still a little behind on your strength." He led her slowly back to the bed, helping her back to her previous position.

"Look, Zero." She followed him with her head as he sat beside her. "There'll be a lot to be done around here, and you're kind of at a situation where you can't do a lot to help anyone until you figure out how to help yourself, am I right?" Zero nodded sullenly. "I don't want to make you do anything you don't want to, but I will have to ask for your help on occasion, I'm sorry to do this, but we need you, the whole world needs you. I'm sorry you got pulled into this war the way you did, but you are the hope for us all. Just you being here has already helped tremendously, and I don't know if you even can do anything to help us, even if you wanted to, but please Zero, please! I know it's a lot to ask, and I know it'll be hard on you, but you have to he-" She was cut short by a finger pressing itself to her mouth.

"Calm down," Zero said softly, "Do you have any idea how overly-sentimental all of that just was? Of course I'll help you. I didn't just go through all of Neo Arcadia's crap to sit here and do nothing. I'll do whatever you want me to." He looked in to her blue eyes. They rippled and trembled just like pools of endlessly deep water. She stared back into the cool, calming grey that glowed softly in his eyes. She felt it again. Milan! She felt the exact same way as when he had held her. One of Zero's hands had placed itself on her shoulder, she felt happy; whole again. Like a part of her that had left on a very long trip had just come back.

_What am I doing?_ Zero thought to himself as he watched his hand place itself on her shoulder. _I hardly know her! What am I doing, and with the situation with Allouette's mother, this is getting so confusing. _Zero wanted to stop it, but, at the same time, he didn't. He knew that no good could come of whatever was about to happen, but he couldn't make it stop, it felt too wonderful. His face slowly, very slowly, began to drift forwards. Ciel's face did the same. Her eyelids drifted lower as her head pulled forward, her breathing was slow, calm, and in a way she couldn't even pinpoint herself, happy. Zero's thoughts drifted back to what Cerveau had said the previous day: "According to record, you were quite the lady's man" He assumed that this whole scenario was his sweet-talking, 'lady's man' side taking over. The train carrying his thoughts snapped back to the room when he felt Ciel's hand wrap around behind his neck, as well as both of his arms around hers. Their faces were only a few inches from each other's. The train gathered speed. Her cheeks began to flush, her breath was warm on his face. The wheels shot sparks in every direction, the engine glowed red hot. Her head tilted, both of their faces were less than half an inch from the other's. The train glowed brighter, began flying at breakneck speeds, shot sparks everywhere. Zero closed his eyes and let himself go.

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The train exploded; His mind exploded. His lips met hers, the room was a blur, a siren wailed in his mind. She felt it, his mouth kissed hers, everything was right for a moment, a siren wailed in her mind. He watched himself kiss her, he couldn't stop it, he wasn't sure if he wanted to. He knew he shouldn't have, the siren told him that. But it felt good, it was good, but the siren wouldn't stop. He had no idea how long he was there, but while there, he argued his way out of all of the possible explanations, like a two year-old, he bawled, saying that it was good, it had to be right, he would make it right! But the siren would not quit. It pounded in to him that something was amiss. The siren… the siren! It wasn't his head, a klaxon wailed over and over through the entire base, repeatedly stating the annoying fact that there was a problem. He pulled himself away from Ciel with a reluctant jerk, and looked to the door. Ciel came to the same realization as he, and ran out the door, completely ignoring the pain in her side.

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"What's going on?" She yelled, stumbling off of the elevator into the central operations room. The Klaxon still sounded, and in this room, it was accompanied by a flashing red light.

"Miss Ciel!" Several people murmured, taking various levels of action to help her. Cerveau and another soldier ran to her side, each taking one of her arms around herself, they stood her up.

"Ciel, you shouldn't be out of the bed until tonight." Cerveau tried to pull her back towards the elevator, but with a surprisingly strong jerk, Ciel pulled away from him.

"I'm fine, just a little tired 'cause of the meds." She stubbornly continued forward, the soldier who had helped her previously still helping her along. "What's going on?" She asked him, stabilizing herself over a computer screen, immediately beginning to type furiously.

"A small squad on patrol was taken prisoner by the Aztec strike team; they took them to the old recycling center again."

Ciel swore under her breath, "Are you doing anything about it?" She turned towards the man with an accusing look in her eyes.

"Yes ma'am, the call for the third battalion just went out, and we're calling in the aerial force bombing team from their liberation run through the mountains, if the third battalion can't get it, they will be able to arrive in a matter of hours."

"Idiot, we don't have hours. Send three separate battalions, and get them assembled within ten minutes. I don't care if they're all there or not, I want them heading to that recycling center in ten minutes at the absolute latest. Am I understood?"

"Yes ma'am." The man saluted, and ran off to give the orders to the rest of the base.

Ciel continued typing away on the computer, preparing everything she could think of for whatever kind of events could unfold. "You're late." She snapped as a shadow cast itself over her shoulder.

"Sorry, I just wasn't in the same kind of rush you were." Zero replied sarcastically. He had actually gone back to his quarters to change back into his tech suit "What the hell is going on?" He asked.

"A squad got captured by Neo Arcadia; they're being kept in the nearby abandoned recycling center. It was recently reactivated, and now they've begin using it as a retirement center."

"I'll go." Zero said.

"Don't be stupid. You don't have to do anything for us, and we'll be able to take care of this on our own. You stay here and try to relax a little." She turned around to push him off to his quarters, but the room was devoid of all red aside from the siren and a few blinking buttons on the computer terminals.

Footnotes:

1. A password transmitter receives a password sent by the central hub of the establishment that the password is used for. This signal is insecure, but the password is sent by the transmitter through an immensely complex mathematical equation, revealing a separate password. The second password will be the real one, as the first one was sent insecurely. This method is used mostly by top-secret organizations that cannot allow any secrets out at all costs.

Author's note: And so it begins! The first mission will officially commence next chapter. Sorry this one took so long to put up. Sickness, travel, and writer's block are to blame for that. I'll try to update faster next time. And please, people, tell me what I can fix, I have a personal feeling that my writing is getting worse, and I don't like that! Please help me out a little.


	7. hide and seek

Ch.7

Dusk had fallen. The spectacle looked as wonderful as the night before, though Zero didn't know that: he hadn't paid much attention to the beauty of it then. Nor could he feel the beauty of the finale the dance through the sky gave before bowing gracefully of the stage of the sky tonight. He ran through the streets, pushing ever toward the recycling center, the directions to which he had obtained from half a squad returning inside after they found that they were unnecessary to the mission. He dove in and out of the light of the sun, from the shadow of one building to the next, barely being fully bathed in the light of the sunset, glowing gold for one brilliant moment, shining brilliantly back towards the soft light that shone in such a stronger manner on him. But then it would end, Zero would fall back under the shadow of a building, blackened under the gluttonous building who took the light for himself and forbid it to those behind him. Like a dolphin in the wake of a ship, leaping out to watch the passengers, to simply look majestic, before falling to the grip of gravity again, and falling beneath the ocean's surface.

Zero, of course, took no notice of this; he was concentrated on getting to the power plant. He was eager to begin. Since he had figured out that there would be a fight to be had, he had remembered his personal vow to see both sides of the story, and find the just cause in the war. This was the perfect opportunity to find that.

The storm clouds loomed ahead, and the dark building Zero had taken for a power plant two days ago, he found, was actually the disposal center he had been looking for. Land underneath the clouds began to take form, showing itself as a decimated city block. Obviously, it was the main commercial district of the city before hand, and was in far worse condition than anything around it. Glass buildings without any windows and few floors left, half-finished construction sites left with melted, twisted beams left poised over the city like massive snakes prepared to suck out the little life that remained of the poor landscape, commercial skyscrapers that the top halves had been cleaved clear off of, and had fallen onto the other buildings, crushing them as if made of paper, strewn rubble in the streets, and broken glass was only part of what made the forlorn landscape of this desolate urban wasteland.

Zero started to slow his running speed as he entered the place, stopping entirely with a jump off of a low cliff created by a collision of torn sections of street. Five pantheons were patrolling the street, making sure that nobody interfered with the process within the disposal center. Zero drew his beam saber, and silently leapt back onto the ridge in the street. He jumped again, this time landing on the edge of a gutted glass building, and ran silently along the bottom of the emptied window frame. He kicked off of the edge of the frame, and fell with saber pointed downward. The fist pantheon was skewered, but the movement alerted one of the others, who was almost immediately sliced in half by a spinning green disc that flew from Zero's hand. Zero charge towards his saber, and grabbed it nearly as soon as it hit the ground. He turned around, and ran towards a third, killing it with a swift sword stroke. Now one of the remaining two's attention was roused, and Zero bounded high over it, and ran it through from top to bottom like the first. The last one was alerted sooner than the rest, bringing its one massive eye to see Zero charging towards it. Before the saber could cut it in half a cacophonously loud chirping roared from an audio output module mounted on the top of its head. Zero stopped in his tracks, grasping his head in pain from the overload his audio receptors were receiving, dropping his sword in the process. An airplane began to rise from the disposal center, the howl of its engines hardly a buzz over the terrible squeal of the siren. Zero managed to force himself to grab his saber from the ground, and jump forward, killing the pantheon and stopping the siren. Zero stood again, and continued towards the disposal center.

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The base was quiet again. Three regiments stood at attention in the central ops room, awaiting the order to move. A radar system tracked all movement in the city, and Ciel, Cerveau, and a few other officers sat and watched, doing their best to monitor Zero's status, as there was no tracer or Com. device that they could tap into to get more detailed information on his situation. Iris stood over the screen, biting her nails. She was utterly terrified, not knowing if he was alright or not. Though she knew she couldn't be obsessing like this, given that it was driven by the love she felt for him, she couldn't help but want him back safely. Eternities passed, both Iris and Ciel were concerned, tortured by the wait. Ciel herself hadn't thought properly of what had happened in the medical lab, but she knew that she wanted it to happen again. A plethora of enemy readings began drifting from the top of the screen, patrolling back and forth as if snowflakes. Zero's cover had been blown. Iris felt she couldn't take it anymore.

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Zero soon found the reason for the siren that had been expectorated so violently from the pantheon. Small blue specks appeared a mile down the pavement, slowly walking forward, searching for the intrusion the guard had spotted. Zero swore, and held his weapon in front of him, bracing himself for the oncoming attack. He dashed forward, watching the blue specks grow into such the hated enemy he had expected. They had also obviously also spotted him, raising the rifles mounted on their arms to meet his position. He kept running forward, but the enemies did not fire. One of the Pantheons stepped in front of the others, held up one hand, and held the other above his head, facing downwards. Zero was about to slash through the pantheon when X appeared. It was only a hologram, of course, but he himself held his hand out in the same fashion as his hologram generator's holder.

"Zero!" the hologram said in a disarmingly cheerful voice, "We thought we had lost you! What are you doing way out here?"

Zero was severely alarmed by the sudden presence of the leader of Neo Arcadia, and had to think up a cover story for himself quickly. "Well, you see, I heard that the interrogation of the Resistance leader was finished, I'm still not sure if it was, but I wanted the honor of killing her, although I was too afraid you would deny me the privilege, so I gave her a ruse that put her under the false pretenses that I had intentions of breaking her out. I had to cause a little damage to make it look believable, and I apologize for that. So I took her out, and killed her out in the wilderness. I decided that to make up for the damage, I would work for a little while as a double agent for you, and get as much intelligence as I could to combat them with." He found himself spouting out, not even quite understanding what he had said himself.

"I see, have you learned anything yet?" X's hologram asked.

"No, sir, they haven't given me privy to such information as would be useful to you yet. As a matter of fact, I know almost nothing of them."

"I understand, I assume you were heading this way to report to the operatives of the disposal center as to what you have done?" Zero nodded. "Very well, the guards here will not attack you anymore, when you get to the disposal center, report to Aztec falcon. You met him before, have you not?" Again, Zero nodded, "Good. When you have figured out the next step in your plan, I would suggest you go back to the resistance base with a good story, and immediately start getting some information, that is all." The hologram vanished, the pantheons tuned around and walked away.

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"You don't seriously trust the fool, do you master?" Harpuia stood from the sitting position he had taken to watch how the events would unfold.

"Oh no, but what better time is there to strike then when your enemy is right in your midst?" X turned toward the door. "Go ahead and kill the hostages, and order Gen. Aztec to destroy Zero when he sees fit." The door opened for X, "Oh, by the way, kill them all as painfully as possible." He left.

"Yes sir!" Harpuia saluted smartly. When the door had closed, Harpuia's hand was held in front of him, the middle finger pointing straight up. "Jackass!" Harpuia spat after him, had no fear of cameras, as there were none in the war room. He turned towards the holographic transmission system, pulling up a current satellite view over the city, and watched Zero running through the street. He scanned across the other streets, and found another reading running through the street parallel to Zero's, sneaking very efficiently and quickly past the guards. A closer satellite image caused him to nearly explode with excitement at the juicy notion of capturing the particular specimen.

A few keystrokes: its position was pinpointed, and every patrol guard in the area converged towards her coordinates with the orders to capture it. "Nothing like fresh bait to pull the beast farther into the trap!" He laughed. More keystrokes brought about a holographic display of Aztec falcon.

"Falcon!" Harpuia snapped; the General turned to face him. "There should be a new hostage coming in soon, as well as Zero, he's back and claiming to be on our side. I want the new hostage put in plain view of Zero, then kill them both very painfuly, do you understand?"

"Yes, Sir!" Falcon squawked and saluted as best he could with his awkwardly long forearm, and closed the transmission. Harpuia chuckled to himself.

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The going became easier beyond the point of Zero's interception, though he still ran to hurry up the mission. He had just played the double agent card, after he revealed his betrayal, there would be nothing between himself and neo arcadia but his own strength, and he didn't have a very effective way to gauge that yet. He had decided that his best chance was in slipping quietly into the disposal center, shutting it down silently, and removing the hostages with no fuss. The plan was full of holes, and Zero was plagued by an inkling that this decision would just make things worse, but he had nothing else to go by.

He found the entrance to the disposal center, and looked around for an alternative entrance. A small ventilation shaft high and to the right of the large double doors caught his eye, but upon climbing the pile of trash cans and rotting garbage, he found it to be no wider than the breadth of his arm. He pulled his arm back and swore. "They must have been expecting a few heroes. He looked around again, noticed the massive smokestacks, he figured they were as good an entrance as any.

Zero could never quite recall how precisely he climbed the wall; all he knew was that it involved jumps and flips as he ricocheted between the disposal center and the crumbled building standing aside it. He landed serenely on the center's top. He jumped again, landed on the smokestack, sliding himself in a moment later, leaving the infant night blackened by the clouds to herself.

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The tunnel was long, Zero descended for five full seconds, the smoke rushing past him in a thick, blackening blur. In an instant, the smoke lost the utter black color, and became a dark orange. Zero gulped as his cybernetic brain began thinking again, and he realized the many fates that could befall one who fell into a smokestack. The glow became brighter, and Zero's hands groped at the seams between the many segments His feet caught themselves on one such seam, and his hands found a firm hold. The glow, however, continued to become brighter; it was coming up. Zero pressed himself back against the wall of the pipe, and braced himself for an unknown impact. The glow was now bright yellow, and a pale blue mingled slightly with it, making a luminescent yellow-green that shone dangerously close to Zero's face. A roaring, boiling burst of flame flew past his face, engulfing him in a heat he had never felt before. An electric charge flew with it, combining the pain into a million burning needles, stabbing him, stabbing him, stabbing… It ended. Zero's pain receptors sensed the danger had passed, and had instantly shut the signal of discomfort off. He decided he would move before another explosion decided it would use Zero's tunnel as an escape route. He fell down the tunnel, and landed in a small room, dimly lit by a few small torches on the walls. _Hyperstatic accelerator combustion chamber _(1) he thought to himself, somehow knowing what it was. He looked for a way out, but found none other than three holes for the smokestacks. Electric blue arcs began drifting through floor and walls of the small room, stinging Zero's feet uncomfortably. He looked frantically for a way out, but only saw a pair of siphoning pistons on the wall. His subconscious mechanical knowledge told him that that was the cause of the electricity. He quickly drew his saber, cutting the both of them in half. They ground to a jerking halt as the electricity began to subside. The saber cut through the depression the now stagnant pistons sat in. Sliding it away, it fell to the floor, and Zero stepped into a large underground cavity. Pipes, massive breaker boxes, small rooms, much like the one he had just come from, and other various machines filled the room, and a large steel box nearly fifty meters in length covered the center of the room. Zero decided that the largest room would have the best chance of finding a way back up, and began to walk towards it.

Cutting another hole in the wall of the largest box revealed a red-orange glow from a boiling vat of the molten leftover metal from the recycling. Zero stepped warily onto a grated floor, used for maintenance service, hoping for another way out. A platform stood over the walkway on the end of a short staircase, a metal sheet capable of riding up and down an elevator system on the side of the wall. Zero stepped onto it, and told it to take him up, which it did obediently. He soon found himself in a fluorescently lit hall, more pipes running back and forth along the wall. He began to run through the halls, twisting back and forth, not paying attention to the layout of the plant, simply trying to get to the prisoners and get out; he had found this job to be quite uncomfortable very quickly. A large set of doors caught his eye as he passed through a particularly wide hall with a border of black and yellow lines and the words "Caution, High voltage" inscribed on its front. Zero pulled the door open, running inside he found a massive circuit breaker, as well as several generators, and many other electrical devices. His saber let out a massive flash as it cut through the center of the circuit breaker and the generators whirred to a complaining halt, and several other devices brought up their own complaints as to being sliced apart. The lights in the room and the hall outside went out, and Zero looked around more in fright of what had happened than anything else.

His breathing sounded unnaturally loud in the dark, and his "adrenaline"(2) was pumping. He dove to the side, but hit his head on a pipeline near the wall. _The Monster mode is really doing its job. Ugh, my head. _He pulled his thoughts together, and entered the vast cavern of secrets his body held, finding a night vision program, and activated it. A flicker of sketchy black and greenish-gray, and the system awoke He looked to the door, and watched a pair of pantheons making their way around the corner. His saber was out in a flash, quite literally: the saber, although not bright in regular vision, was severely intensified under the night vision's effect. Intensified so much, in fact, that Zero's vision went entirely white, and he couldn't see the pantheons any longer. They, however, could quite well see him. He switched the night vision off, and immediately felt a sharp burn and a strong force hit his chest, and he was flung back into the pipes against the wall again. He stood again, and sliced through the drones, seeing them by the light of his glowing green saber, which wound up a far better vision enhancer than the night vision.

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"You dirty, slimy, cretinous, son of a-"

"Now, now, let's not be vulgar here. A fine lady such as yourself should never have a reason to bring up such language in a conversation, let's be as civil as possible here."

"Will you shut the and let me kill you already!"

"Oh, but Zero hasn't gotten here yet, so why waste you? it will be sooo much fun to watch him squirm while you die!" Aztec falcon laughed at his self-proclaimed funny comment, "Although it's a shame to waste a beautiful woman such as yourself, perhaps my men could use your refreshment, hmm?"

Ciel stared at him out of narrowed eyes in the dim, auxiliary power that had been activated after the original system failed. Screwed up in disgust, Ciel's face sent as much saliva as it's inexperienced lips could muster, and spat it with hardly enough force to find it's mark on the falcon's face. "Like hell I'll give it to them!"

"Oooh, feisty, If only I weren't a reploid, I'd want a piece of you too! I think, though, that such refreshment would be welcomed by my human troops. And no matter what you say, you know you would like it as well. Nyaaaa-ka-kaka-kaka-ka!" His ugly, avian laugh echoed through her mind as he exited the disposal chamber she was in. mere seconds later, a pair of guards came, chuckling, through the door.

"Boss says we get to have some fun before Zero gets here, so let's get started." One of them said. He walked behind her, and lifted her by the pink collar of her tech vest.

"Not a bad specimen, let's see what she's hiding." Said the second guard, grabbing the front of her collar. "Release it(3)" he said.

"Bite me" Ciel hissed. But before she could try to get away, he pulled roughly at the collar, causing her severe pain, She scowled, but after another rough tug that nearly ripped the skin, she released the tech suit with a reluctant growl, and he pulled it. It broke, and she saw a sick satisfaction crawl across his face. She struggled to pull her hands free, but the first soldier struck them sharply to get them to stop. He then placed his hand on her in a way that startled and disgusted her.

"Sick perverts!" She spat, but did nothing, knowing there was no way to get out. The soldier in front of her, who had begun stroking her now bared chest, suddenly froze, and Ciel noticed a green beam of light protruding from his stomach, and resting only inched from hers. The light retreated, and the soldier fell to the ground in a heap, revealed a frowning, apparently infuriated and disgusted Zero. He swung his saber around her in a perfectly aimed arc, and very efficiently sliced the other soldier in half. He reached down, and removed the blue uniform coat from the soldiers top half, and wrapped it around Ciel's shoulders. She brought her arms across her bare breasts, and held the coat close.

:"If you're going to fondle a girl, at least get her consent first!" Zero spat at the half-dead half-soldier. He turned to Ciel, "Do you know where the hostages are?"

"Don't tell him! He'll be meeting them in hell soon enough! Nye-kakaka!" Aztec's squawking voice resonated through the room. "Now look up!" Zero and Ciel did as they were asked, and saw a large metal slab in the ceiling rumble and begin to slide down. Ciel screamed, and Zero grimaced.

Aztec's face appeared on a computer screen in the wall, he was laughing again. "Aztec?" Ciel was incredulous that he had found out about Zero's presence. "What do you want?"

"Simple, you and that flimsy excuse for a reploid, carved and on a silver platter, served to mas-" His voice was cut off as the glass cracked, and Zero's fist lay in the center of the crater-like break he had put in the screen.

"How annoying he is. Apparently he already killed the hostages, so our first priority is to kill him and get out of here." Ciel nodded, "But before that can happen, we need to stop that. He pointed to the trash compactor that was now nearly halfway to the floor.

"Why do we need to stop it? The door's over there, cut it down!" Ciel was unsettled by his lack of usual observance.

"Already tried, it was designed as a blast door(4), can't cut through it"

"Can you cut through the walls?"

"Yes, but the other side is the same material as the doors."

"I don't need that much, but cut out this side of the wall." Zero did so, and Ciel crouched between the two coverings of the wall. She pulled out the back of the password console, and began pulling and moving wires.

"We don't have time for you to crack the code!" Zero said, stepping somewhat rudely between Ciel and the console, and plunged his saber through it. It melted, and fizzled, but the door didn't budge.

"You idiot!" Ciel barked, "That never works! Not even a hundred years ago!" She was both angry and frantic now, and began looking desperately for something to do. She suddenly seemed to remember something, and seemingly magically produced a screwdriver from a small pouch on her waist. She did not acknowledge Zero's confused look, but instead grabbed the now unpowered blade from Zero's hands, and activated it, holding the screwdriver near it. The blade melted, and sagged low, creating a makeshift crowbar.

This time Zero took the initiative, and took the crowbar, and placed it to a rivet in the large panel of wall. By the time Zero got enough rivets out to bend to an opening the panel, the compressor was only two feet from the ground, and he and Ciel had been forced to lie on their stomachs.

"Where can we go now?" Ciel asked, noticing that the only way out of the room was back the way they came.

"Hopefully, there'll be a maintenance entrance somewhere above the compactor that we can use to get away from here."

"Let's hope you're right," Ciel said, crawling back through the hole in the wall and stepping onto the layer of ceiling that was now only mere inches from the ground. Zero stepped in behind her, and looked up to the ceiling where a small door and catwalk-like pathway rested above where the compactor's compacting component had begun it's descent. "What'd'ya know?" She smiled.

"Now hold on tight." Sweeping her off of her feet (literally), Zero bounded back and forth across the cylindrical room, much the same as when he had entered the plant originally. Zero landed standing straight up, and gently letting Ciel to the ground, holding her shoulder when she almost fell over.

"H-how the hell… didyou do that?" Her words were interrupted and confused by the shock she had just suffered.

"To be honest, I'm not sure myself. Let's hope that these maintenance doors aren't blast level defense." Zero ignited his weapon, and Plunged his sword into the door. To their relief, there was a loud sizzle, and the door began to melt. "Thank god!" Zero said, kicking the door out of its former container.

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Aztec waited in the dark control room for the Zero and his damsel in distress to get there. Although criminally insane, he wasn't stupid, and as such, he knew the two would be along any moment. He loved to scare; that was his favorite tactic, and he planned to utilize it to its fullest ability. All of a sudden, voices sounded outside the closed doors.

"Zero, look" A first said, "It's just that, well, you saved me n' all, and I, well, Aztec, he's totally mad, and, he's not a general for no reason! And, well, I'm just trying to say, well… Just be careful Zero!" Z cute speech, but how pathetic. That little wench wasn't half as tough as she let on in her incarceration. A second voice began:

"Don't worry. I'll be fine." It said.

"Just come back." the first chimed pathetically.

"Do I have to promise you?" The first person obviously nodded, because the second one continued, "Okay, then, I swear to you that I will come back." And finally, Aztec's little show could begin.

"Hello Zero, Having fun?" Aztec's voice rang out in the total darkness all four sides.

"Shut up and let me kill you already." Zero's voice Gave Aztec his precise location.

"Nyehehehehehehe" Aztec's attempt at a scary laugh echoed through the dark room. His long, two-pronged arms sent and electric surge through the system he had set up just for this show. Electricity arced between nodes set up around the room, illuminating the bottom half a pale blue. Zero seemed less taken aback by this than he had expected. Onto stage two:

A switch was flipped. Several copies of Zero's image appeared on all four walls around him. Four cameras were set around the corners, and they projected the four angles of Zero on the wall. Falcon laughed as Zero started, turning around to see what had happened. "Scared already? This will be fun!" Falcon laughed again, and flipped another switch, displaying a mosaic image of his face on each wall. "Want to play a game?" His faces on the wall turned towards Zero, and He laughed again, and the screens filled with pale blue electricity, and Falcon sent two long, powerful streams of electricity towards Zero, Who fell back while Aztec continued in a more maniacal laugh that more produced the fear he had originally intended his laugh to invoke. Time for Stage three:

The electrical signals between the nodes fell apart, and Aztec's face slipped slowly from the wall bit by bit. Zero pulled a beam sword from his back, Aztec jumped down, purposefully making his connection with the ground loud. He heard Zero turn in that direction, and he ran off, to the adjacent wall. He activated a remote electromagnetic scrambler(5), and Zero shut the saber off once it began to shock his hand. "That last shot wasn't fair, I'll give you a countdown this time! Ready? Five…" He continued his path in a circle around Zero. "Four…" He tightened his path, "Three…" Zero's face became barely visible, and Aztec lightened his steps so Zero wouldn't hear him. "Two…" He watched panic swirl across Zero's face, "One…" A remote switch brought his face onto the screen again, "Zero!" He spread the prongs of his arm, and closed them around Zero's neck. A small blue spark flickered at the meeting point of the two rods, Illuminating Zero's terrified face in a sharp light. Oh how he loved to play games. "You lose." Said Aztec, and sent a current up his forearm, throwing Zero back against the wall. "but of course, in every good game, you get three chances, so you get one more try! But let's make this one a little more fair. Get up, and Fight." Aztec turned off his disruptor, and reactivated the electric nodes, flooding the room with an pale, electric blue light.

Zero pulled his saber as he stood up, "Are you finally going to fight like a sane man?"

"Oh, but where's the fun in that?" asked Aztec, lunging towards Zero. Zero's saber was out in a flash, And Aztec's magnetically charged arm was held at odds with the saber. Zero turned around and swung back, but was met by the same magnetic repulsion. Each warrior leapt around the room, trying to find some hole in the fields. Aztec's mind worked like a mindless machine: up, down, stab, slash, parry down, duck, uppercut. He worked tirelessly, attacking and blocking in a relentless cycle while Zero, he moved in a blur. He had never come across an opponent so entertaining. He was quite sure he would have died several times by now had the magnetic fields not interfered. Zero leapt back, looking very closely at his saber now. Aztec was heating up, and sat still, trying to reverse the effect. Zero had opened a panel on his saber, and was fiddling with the controls inside. Soon, just as Aztec was about to attack, in fact, he resumed his fighting pose, and charged again towards his adversary. Aztec Held his two long, blade-like arms in front of him, and expected to repel Zero's attack. Instead, as Zero drew nearer, He felt himself being pulled towards the blade. Just in time, he pulled his body away from the saber, but his arms were drawn too strongly, and he felt the ends of them sever and fall off. The bastard had switched his saber's polarity!

Zero now stood on the other side of His adversary, grinning smugly. He turned around, and pointed his saber towards Aztec. "That was a fun game." He said, walking towards Aztec. "We should play again sometime!" Aztec turned, and began to run. Zero followed Suit. Aztec ran out of room, and scrambled frantically. Finally, he turned around, intending to take Zero down with him. His now very sharp half-arm pointed straight at Zero while he hurtled towards him. "But I suppose for now…" Zero continued, letting his saber impale falcon, but not before feeling a sharp pain in his shoulder, and knew that Aztec had stabbed it. "Game over." Zero grunted as Aztec chuckled weakly. With the last ounce of his strength, he ripped his saber straight upwards, crushing Aztec's central cooling unit. Zero felt an explosion engulf him, and he fell to the ground, hardly conscious anymore. The last thing he saw was a hazy silhouette running towards him.

Footnotes:

1. A Hyperstatic accelerator combustion chamber utilizes an electric charge to jumpstart a large scale combustion chamber explosion, and combines the energy to maximize the amount generated at once. It uses energy more quickly than other systems, but creates more by comparison; therefore used typically for high energy consumption facilities.

2. As a reploid has no biological components and therefore no hormones, yet were designed to be as human as possible, an "overdrive" system is installed into most mainframes, kicking in when danger is considered imminent. These are more commonly called "Monster modes" in reference to a massively popular energy drink that went under in the 2060's, after ingredients used by the manufacturer were deemed a legitimately illegal drug, and banned. These systems differ from the pain sensor systems in that they do not drive a reploid into an immediate survival instinct mode, but heighten senses and increase the thought speed. A drawback that no scientist cannot figure out how to fix, is that, very much like a human, the thoughts become irrational and disjointed. Several in the AAI (anti-Artificial Intelligence) movement argue that the drawback keeps the reploids in check were they to be threatened by a human , because if they were able to think straight, their superhuman abilities would be too far advanced, and a final revolt could quite definitely destroy all human life.

3. A human tech is very strongly integrated with the human neural system, and cannot be removed unless the human gives a conscious command to disengage the connections. Until such a command is given, the tech could very easily be considered a part of the human's skin, so to pull a tech or undertech off of a person's body would rip and peel the skin with it. Several situations have also been recorded when a tech suit was pulled into a wound, and was sealed inside the body, not allowing the person to ever remove the suit without first surgically removing the part under the flesh.

4. Blast doors, (seen often in science fiction) refer to doors closed only in emergencies. They are doors designed to withstand up to ten thousand degrees Fahrenheit, (Zero's saber only heats up to around seven thousand) but is no less malleable than steel, which most reploids can bend without serious difficulty. These doors in particular, being in a constantly high temperature facility, are always closed, in case of a meltdown

5. An electromagnetic scrambler breaks the magnetized feild that a beam sword uses to contain the blade. This causes The beam's pattern to become erratic, and, being a polarized beam of light, often is re-attracted to the handle, which can easily burn it's holder's hand. They are rather uncommon, because they are unnaturally expensive, consume extensive amounts of energy, and they pose the same level of danger to the one holding the scrambler as to the one with the saber

Author's note:

Is fun time, no? It has finally begun, and begin it did. I want major reviewage, because I really want to know what this looks like from another writer's (or non-writer's) perspective. I appreciate all who have reviewed so far, and would love to see more from you guys as well. I have so much fun writing this story, and believe me, Chapter 8 will be a doozy (Although the awesomeness may be delayed until chapter 9) and now I leave you to eat cheetos and listen to remixed opera music.

P.S.: I'm new to the rating systems of the site, and I'm unsure whether that scene with Ciel constitutes an M rating or not. If it does, please notify me so I can change it.

P.P.S.: Sorry for the delay, school started again, and I was trying to readjust for a while, I should be writing a little faster now.


	8. paranoia

The sun was setting over the mountain range on the far end of the city, and long, golden ribbons of light fell across it, casting a gilding of iridescent orange-gold across all that fell under it's gaze. _How poetic._ He thought ironically. The ceremony for the four who were killed in the power plant a week ago had been that morning, irrevocably ruining his day.

"Mr. Zero?" Allouette stood in the doorway to the balcony. "Mr. Zero, are you okay? You looked really sad this morning."

"Yeah, I'm okay." He turned around, ruffled her hair.

"Okay then, let's go play!" She said, turning around and running through the doorway. Zero followed, motioning to chase her, she laughed as she ran down the crumbling stairs, but screamed and tripped when she got to the bottom to find Zero (Who had leapt from the stairs) already waiting for her. She squealed with laughter as he grabbed her, swung her over his shoulder, and carried her around kicking, screaming, and laughing. He finally lifted her off, placed her on his shoulders, and ran around in a circle. Once thoroughly dizzy, he ran out of the decrepit house with Allouette's arms spread wide.

"Having fun?" Said a voice as they passed by. Allouette's mother stood leaning against the doorframe, smiling at them.

"Momma! Mr. Zero chased me down the stairs, and then he caught me, and then he put me over his shoulder, and then he-"

"Sounds like you've had a good time." She reached up and took her from Zero's shoulders with a dejected 'awwww…' from her daughter. "Oh, Zero, I need to talk to you later, can you meet me under the central screen in the control room after dinner?"

"No problem." Zero said, giving a final hug to Allouette, and running off to the base.

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Zero sat in the control room, digging through the history files on the computer, trying to find out whatever he could about his history that Ciel hadn't already told him. Several words stuck out in his mind as he read them: Sigma, Eurasia, Zero Virus, Repliforce, and a few others were most prominent, but a single name he couldn't shake from his mind. Iris McAllister. He had scrounged and perused every letter held on the file and came up with only a few pages of information. Why did it seem so important? All he could find was that she was the brother of a Colonel McAllister who served in the Repliforce (an all reploid freedom army that went too far, and nearly wiped out the human race), a short biography that gave little information, an image, and the simple fact that she died on the final weapon when it was destroyed. Still, he couldn't shake the idea he was missing something.

He was reading the information he had collected for the fifth time when the door opened. Allouette's mother walked in, a young girl in a green uniform beside her. "Hello." Allouette's mother said in a very somber voice. "Zero, this is my older daughter, Jordan McAllister." Zero's eyes widened at these words. "She wanted to talk to you"

"No I didn't!" The young girl, who's head had turned away, snapped her face back to meet her mother's gaze, flinging strands of red hair from their keeping place under her soldiers cap, "You are the one who wanted me to talk to him! I didn't give a damn!"

"Jordan, you can't just let this go! You have to talk to somebody, and there's no-one better to talk to than the-"

"Don't try to patronize me! I don't care what you think I need to do! Will you shut up already! You have no Idea what's happening! You aren't even human!"

Her mother gasped at these words, "Jordan! You of all people have no right to say that! You kno-" She was cut off again.

"Shut up! Screw you! Screw Zero! Screw Dad, Screw everybody!" She turned around and ran from the room, tears glittering in her wake.

"I take it you specifically weren't the one who wanted to talk to me." Zero said.

"No. It's just that, her father was one of the men killed in the disposal center, and she never had a good relationship with him, but now she hasn't spoken to anyone since news came that he was dead. I think that she blames herself for her father's death."

"And you thought that since I tried to save him that I would be the best person for her to talk to right now, right?"

"Well, yes." Iris replied.

"I understand, I'll talk to her."

"But you don't even know where she-" Iris again found herself cut short.

"I have a hunch." Zero said, running towards the door.

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"You know, she was only trying to help you."

"I don't care, she shouldn't have."

"It's not like she hates you."

"Except that it is."

"Why would your own mother do something like that to you?"

"That's exactly it; she's my mother."

"Why don't you want to talk about your father anyway?"

"How did you…?"

"She told me"

"Whatever."

"I don't consider this to be a 'whatever' situation. No matter how much you don't want to talk about it, I promise it'll help."

"How would you know?"

"I'm not precisely sure how, but I do."

"I don't believe you."

"Why not?"

"Why the hell would I trust an over-inflated egotistic celebrity like you?"

"Give me a good reason why you wouldn't."

"Will you leave already?"

"No."

"Please leave."

"No."

"Why?"

"Because your mother asked me to talk to you, and besides, I want to know what's happening."

"The-the last thing I s-said to him… w-was 'I h-hate you…'"

Jordan fell to her knees, slats of blackness falling over the pallid, moonlit figure from the railing of the derelict balcony, and sobbed unrestrainedly. She felt a hand on her shoulder, and looked up to see pale-lit face of Zero, looking at her with an expression of care she had never seen in a reploid. She didn't care if he was one of those damned robots; she thrust herself into his shoulder, holding him close to her.

"I'm sorry!" She sobbed, "I'm so sorry."

"Don't be." He whispered in her ear, "It wasn't your fault."

"Y-yes it w-was!"

"Don't try to talk," He held her tighter, and she felt exactly like she had when her father used to hug her.

"Thank you, Zero." She closed her eyes, and almost immediately fell asleep, pressing a final tear from her eye. Zero picked her up softly and slowly, and walked back through the black door to the base.

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Zero sat in his room the next morning, running through his personal computer, searching through Jordan's history. He had felt the same kind of compassion for her as he had for Allouette, and he was still unable to pinpoint it. All he had learned so far was that she was an orphan, and she had been adopted by the DeRouge family at the age of two, and become a soldier at age 13 (she was now 16). A beep from the other side of the room lifted his head. He hit a button on the projected keyboard(1), and brought on the screen an image of Ciel standing outside the door, looking expectantly at the camera watching her. Another button opened the door, and Ciel walked in.

"Hey." She said, walking in and sitting beside him on the bed.

"Hey, need something?" Zero asked.

"Well, I heard about Jordan, and I just wanted to thank you for it."

"You knew her then?"

"I know everyone around here, Zero. Since her father died, Jordan hadn't spoken to anyone but her mother before you did, and even then, she was snappish and angry. But now, she's like a different person! I don't know what you did, but she's happier this morning than she had been in almost a week."

"Don't mention it, it's the least I could do after you've taken me in like this."

"Well, yeah, but-"

"Really, you owe me nothing, and I owe you nothing."

"Okay, if you say so. By the way, there's an assembly of all soldier personnel in the control room this evening, if you want to show up, you won't be denied the privilege."

"Thank you. I'll be there." He said, turning back to his computer.

"Um, goodbye then." She stood and walked out of the door, waving goodbye to him. He returned the motion, turning back to her with a slight smile on his lips. His eyes only flitted across the screen for a moment before his eyes widened, and he ran out of the room, a frantic look on his face.

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The doors on the sides of the hall flew by in a blur, several people turned to talk to him as he ran by, he paid them no heed. Nothing mattered, he had to find her. Such thoughts flew through his mind, and it was these thoughts that caused him to trip over Allouette.

"Mr. Zero! Are you okay?" She asked, bringing her hands to her mouth.

"Where's your sister?" He asked, standing without a word to her question.

"She's in our quarters, why?" She replied timidly.

"Where is that?" He neglected again to answer her question.

"Down the hall that way," She pointed, "number 354c." Zero ran off almost before she had finished her question. The room was not far down the hall, and even before he had turned towards it, he had let out three loud _TONK_s on the metal door. He continued to pound furiously on it, so distracted that he almost hit Jordan's head when she opened the door.

"Augh!" She screamed, sidestepping the fist that Zero had intended for the door, "Zero? What're you-?"

"Who are you?" Zero interrupted.

"Wh-what?" Jordan was taken aback by the odd question.

"I asked who you are." Zero stepped past her, into the plainly furnished quarters. "Now answer my question." He turned his head toward her.

"Zero? You know me, why do you need to-?" She was again cut short.

"There's something you aren't telling me. Now who in the hell are you?" His eyes were grave as he confronted her eyes with his own.

"Zero, there's nothing I'm keeping secret from y-"

"Shut up! Just shut up! Quit dropping me this line, and tell me the damned truth!"

"There's nothing I'm keep-" Instead of a voice, she was cut short by the back of Zero's hand.

"What is so important that you can't even let me know you know it? Will you just tell me already!" Zero raised his hand again, only to have it stopped by a hand. He turned to see Jordan's mother, her face held low.

"W-who a-are you?" The anger in his eyes melted away to a terrified confusion at seeing the look on her face.

"I can't tell you that." Her expression halted any response from Zero. "I cannot tell you my name, just call me Cornelia, I am not your enemy. That is all I can tell you, that is all you need to know, now please leave." Without lifting her head, or releasing Zero's arm, she pointed to the door.

"B-but, I-"

"Just go, please."

Zero, still bewildered walked wordlessly through the door, not looking back. The moment he was gone, Jordan's mother fell to her knees, crying. A single tear fell before she wailed miserably, and sobbed as she beat the cold steel floor. Jordan was thoroughly upset by the affair, and unknowingly began to cry herself, running out of the room.

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Zero ran blindly, stumbling past anything and everything, giving no heed to whatever he met. It was this confused path that led him to crashing halt over a green-uniformed soldier. The two tumbled to the ground, and Zero felt himself hitting several other bodies, and as he landed, he felt them again, this time landing on him. He pulled himself up, feeling several people trying to do the same, and saw a large crowd, gathered in the central command room, and a "code green"(2) flashing on the central screen. Zero stood in the crowd as those in the circumference of the domino effect made by his crashing into it recovered as well.

"Looks like we have a visitor." Chuckled a haughty, arrogant voice from the front on the room on a small, makeshift podium from directly below the central screen. "Mr. Zero, if you are going to take part in the military actions of this organization, please, take care not to disrupt every bit of it." Zero, being slightly taller that most of the soldiers assembled, could see to the front, where a tall, unnaturally slender reploid stood, supported on legs that seemed far too long for him. Although a _"him" _it hardly was; His wardrobe was almost entirely pink, and thick, luxurious blonde hair spilled over one side of his femininely shaped face, while the other half was covered by a golden mask that revealed only a slit where his mouth lay, and a diamond shaped hole showed a bright, piercingly red eye. "Anyway, as I was saying, this transport has been only known to Ciel, Cerveau, and me until this point, the announcement of its special cargo was to be this evening, but we have reason to believe there is an intercept laid by Neo Arcadia, and we will need every available hand to defend it." Zero gasped, understanding immediately what and where the interception would be. "Before we send you out to meet the convoy to escort it, you'll have to know what you're escorting: Please allow me to present, Calliope!" He made a wide gesture with his hands, and an image of a small, shifting ball of light appeared on the screen. "This is the ultimate cyber-elf! A warrior of its own, with the most advanced hacking powers known to man or reploid, and abilities beyond your wildest dreams!" An uproar flew from the crowd, and the man grinned, "This convoy hold the victory to the war! You will protect it with your lives, am I right?" The army raised their fists with a cheer, "We will depart in one hour! Prepare for the final battle, prepare for peace!" The multitude roared again, and dispersed quickly, eager to get on to the mission. Zero pushed through the crowd, having serious trouble fighting the currents that had developed as the soldiers tried to leave. He had to get to the front, speak to whoever that man was, figure out if this plan was going to really save the convoy. The bodies bumping him continually knocked at his shoulders, and his progress was excruciatingly slow for a while, but the massive number of bodies decreased at a fairly swift rate, and Zero soon found himself easily able to walk up to the platform on which the man stood.

"Mr. Zero, I presume." He looked with disdain towards the cool grey eyes that were forced to look up at him due to his elevated position.

"You would presume correctly, and may I ask who you are?" Zero replied.

"You may, but I may not answer you, and perhaps not even truthfully at that, but you have every right and ability to ask my name."

"What a funny man you are." Zero said, leaping high into the air, landing only two feet in front of where he had previously stood, but now on the platform. "I have no time for petty games; tell me why you mobilized them."

"Why? Because the convoy is carrying precious cargo that we can use to our advantage, we need every bit of that we can get."

"Cut the crap and tell me what your real reason was."

"What makes you think there's another reason?" The man looked at him inquisitively.

"I can see you don't want to tell me, and as I've said, I have no time for you, Where and when is this convoy supposed to meet up with its escort?"

"I have no good reason to disclose this information to a mundane recruit like you, what gives you this authority over me?"

"Dammit, you're useless." Zero turned and hopped off the stage. "By the way, you never told me your name.

"Nor do I intend to." Said the pink-clad man, walking to the side of the platform, and taking a small staircase on the corner of it.

"Elpizo, you're an idiot." Ciel walked up from the back of the platform, looking with contempt towards the haughty figure descending the steps. "If you must know, Zero, then come on up here, and I'll show you." She held out her hand to help him up, but he ignored it, bounding high over her head, landing upright behind her. She turned around, slightly perplexed at his actions, but walked over to an empty computer. She pulled up almost the same precise satellite image that he had seen in Neo Arcadia. She hit a few buttons, bringing up the same path he had seen in the meeting as well. She drew a point of intercept halfway between the bridge where he knew the Arcadian forces would be waiting in ambush and the resistance base. Zero swore loudly, flipped open his fingerflash(3), and plugged it into the computer, quickly extracting the map and all coordinates.

"When is this meeting to take place?" Zero asked Ciel, pulling his finger from the port and looking towards her.

"Tonight, around 1800 hours, why?"

"That's to late, get every soldier to _that _bridge," He pointed, "By 1500 hours at the latest."

"What? Zero, that's impossible, and why in God's name would we need to do that?"

"There's an ambush."

"Wai- what?" Ciel was flabbergasted.

"I said, there's an ambush. It's waiting on that bridge, and it's going to go down the moment the convoy reaches it. Half of Fefnir's army will be there, as well as nearly all of Harpuia's, and their going in a pincer movement. While what little defense will be already with the trucks is busy in the front defending them, there's going to be an air raid from behind to steal Calliope, then they're simply going to detonate the bridge."

"You're a fool Zero." Elpizo chimed in from behind them.

"I thought you had left." Zero snarled.

"I was going to, but then I heard this preposterous load of manure you were spouting, and felt it was my place to so graciously correct you. I happen to have inspected that bridge myself, and within the last hour. There was nothing there, and you have nothing to fear. I understand your concern for the resistance, but you really need to straighten out your facts first. If you are truly so concerned, then go prepare with the other troops, and follow them out there, instead of wasting the lady Ciel's time." Ciel shivered at the gaze that fell on her. "Now, if you don't mind, Ciel and I have our own separate business to attend to." He held out his hand in a disgustingly haughty, gentlemanly manner, only to have it brushed to the side by Ciel, who walked past him wordlessly.

"Sorry Zero, as much as I hate him, Elpizo's right; we do have something we need to oversee, and there's not enough proof to your claims to cause that much of a fuss over it."

"What? You mean that the risk of losing or winning this war isn't high enough to mobilize the resistance a little faster?"

"There are other things to take into account Zero. The civilians will get scared if we're in too much of a rush to move out, the troops may be under prepared if we move them too quickly, and besides all of that, we already knew there was an ambush waiting, and we happened to have had our last mole get us the information on it just before he was found out and killed. It is not to be on the bridge, but farther along, and later at night."

"Who was your mole, then?"

"Andrew Ferguson."

"I knew Ferguson." Zero's eyes narrowed, "The man was a bastard, that's why I killed him. He was never found out, He himself tried to kill the two of us when we were escaping."

"I happened to know Andrew very well, and he would never try to do something like that to us!"

"I happened to know him as well, and I know for a fact he would. Did it ever occur to you that Neo Arcadia has a much larger intelligence unit than you? Don't you think it was possible he wasn't playing double, but triple agent? There's no way they wouldn't have known about him 'leaking information', and struck a bargain for him to give you faulty intel."

"Shut up! Andrew wouldn't to that to us, h-he was a good man, He- he loved me. And he wouldn't do that."

"Yes he would, Ciel, the man was a-"

"Just go away!" Ciel turned and ran off of the platform.

"You really should learn some better manners, Zero, or things like this will happen all too often." Zero clenched his fists, but restrained himself long enough to walk past Elpizo, and quickly remembered that he needed to leave, and quickly ran to the elevator, and told it to take him down.

Once down in the underground bay, he ran into Cerveau's lab to find him welding together some large robotic object in his 'garage' room (Adjacent to the medical room that one finds immediately upon entering.).

"Cerveau!" Zero called over the loud hiss and crackle of the welder. Cerveau lifted his head, and slid the mask up, revealing his face smudged with oil and sweat.

"What do you need, Zero?" He asked, setting down the welder, and standing to his full height.

"You remember that Red Pheonix I rode in on? Ciel said you took it."

"Oh, yes, A fine specimen, I do have it, you know, that's one of my favorite models of-"

"Not right now Cerveau, Just tell me where it is!"

"It's in the hangar, where else?"

"Where's the hangar?"

"Just opposite my lab, over that way, but you need a launch code to take off with anything."

Zero swore, and ran out of the lab, finding a large double door set just where Cerveau had told him it would be. His password transmitter gave him an access code, which his fingers worked frantically to input; the doors gave a reluctant hiss and slid back when he had finished. Zero was disgusted by what he saw inside: a junkyard. Or close enough. Several dilapidated helicopters lined leftmost wall, with faded, dented tanks lay in rows beside that. Several dusty, old transport vehicles resided beside that, though a few were out of order, nestled snugly among the tanks. A few fighter jets, although new, sat small, weak, and outdated in the next section. Beside these, on the right wall, lay personal transport vehicles: bikes, hoverbikes, PSUs(4), and the like. Zero immediately saw his Phoenix, sticking out like a sore thumb. Not sore because the bike itself was unattractive, but rather because it was by far not only the most effective weapon, but it was the only thing in there brightly colored, shiny, and with all of the pieces still attached to it. He stepped on, revved the engine, and flew allowed the bike to levitate the both of them a foot or two above the ground before realizing there was no way out, He swore, and looked around for a way out. Before he came up with any Idea, he heard the roar of a second engine behind him. An old, scratched, and dented bike floated up aside Zero, supporting Jordan. The logo _Titan_(5) was hardly visibly underneath a deep scratch.

"You really need to learn to plan things out more carefully, you'll never get anywhere without a launch key." She beamed at him.

"And I suppose you have one?" He had to raise his voice slightly to be heard above the engines.

"Yup!"

"Ok, give it here." He held out his hand. She made no movement, "Come on!" Still no movement. Realization dawned on Zero, and he frowned angrily; "Jordan, there's no way you're coming with me! You get back inside; you're way too young for this kind of thing!"

"Ah-hem!" Jordan reached with one hand, and tugged at the stripes on her uniform. Zero studied them, and realized that she held the position of lance corporal. "Actually, I outrank you, so I think it would be in your best interests to let me go with you."

Zero scowled, but really had no choice but to consent. Jordan grinned widely, and activated the key. Zero watched in astonishment as a colossal slab of stone, nearly fifty feet above him, letting the early afternoon light cascade downward like a waterfall, spilling onto the machines in the back of the room, then flowing forward onto the vehicles row by row, releasing them from the black confines they were previously held in, breaking them free in a flash of pallid, white sunlight. Jordan's vehicle moved forward first, and Zero's followed soon afterwards.

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"Sir, are we ready to set up?" The fool's voice asked the same question for the third time over the intercom.

"Did I tell you to do anything yet, you idiot? Wait for my order!" Fefnir closed the intercom, and stood from his resting place on one of the protruding understructures of the bridge. The explosives had just been set, and all that was left to do now was to wait. He walked off the edge of the support, activating a jetpack on his back as he did so, and flew himself up to the surface of the bridge. His intercom beeped again, and he reluctantly picked it up, "Fefnir Here."

"Fefnir! Why aren't you ready yet, you idiot, the convoy will be there any minute!" X's voice snarled menacingly even without the image of his face being there.

"Sir, we have reason to believe the resistance will be making a final sweep of the area any minute now, and if we're set up along the bridge, they'll send the convoy a different direction."

"Dammit, you fool! That's of no concern to you; we've taken care of their security, now just get ready!"

"Yessir!" Fefnir shut off the intercom, and motioned for his troops to get into position. The repeater troops(6) took awhile, which concerned Fefnir, but everyone was set up within ten minutes, which was a good time. Fefnir smiled as he watched a small dust cloud slowly building up on the horizon, as well as a group of tiny dots appearing to the east over the canyon the bridge spanned. "It's almost time." He said to himself, followed the tactic his troops had used, and activated a cloaking device.

The cloud slowly grew larger, small black dots that marked the trucks wobbled uncertainly back and forth through the desert heat like sunburned ants. Harpuia's jets were now barely distinguishable from the form of black specs they had so recently been disguised in by distance. A spread in the grin of Fefnir caused a slight ripple in his invisibility as the projectors on all sides of him scrambled to shift the image they displayed to what the image on the other side of them now displayed(7). The trucks were now distinguishable as well, and Fefnir heard his troops assuring their positions on the ground, shuffling their feet to make themselves feel better about their footing. The trucks were entirely defined, and the sunlight made Fefnir wince as it ricocheted like a white, blinding bullet towards the cybernetic Eye that so readily made a deep, black repository for the continual stream of the stuff. The trucks were now 300 meters away, according to the diagnostic displays roaming before his eyes. 250… 200… 175… 150… 125… 100… Fefnir could distinguish the drivers in the front seats… 90 meters, Fefnir lowered his cloak, and the troops followed suit… 80, 75, 70, they were slowing down, 65, 60, 55, 50, 49, 48, 47, 46, 45… They stopped. Fefnir raised his massive handgun towards the foremost truck, and called out to the driver:

"You are not to move forward. I want you out of that cab, with your hands behind your head, do you understand me?" The driver looked utterly terrified, and slowly lifted his hands off of the wheel, opened the door, and walked out, hands stiffly stuck up on either side like some puppet moving only by a cruel master's hand. "Now order your men to bring me the Calliope project." The truck driver motioned slightly with his hand, and a pair of men, just as stiff as him slowly climbed out of the cab from their hiding place under the seats, and slowly walked backwards to the back of the truck. Fefnir grinned again, but such a smile was greeted with a face full of burning hot concrete, he tried to figure out what had happened, and his question was answered when he felt a weight lift itself from his head, and saw a red figure running off towards the trucks. He screamed in pain when he felt a second thing hit his head, and his face plowed into the ground again. This time when he lifted his head, he saw an obviously female person in green following the same path as the red one who came before her. He stood quickly, raised his handgun and shouted to the troops standing moronically still behinds him:

"You idiots! Kill them!" The soldiers roared loudly, as if to make up for their hesitation with enthusiasm, and ran forward.

Zero leapt to the top of the front most truck, a small metal case in his hands. He turned around, and immediately saw several gun barrels gazing with their dumb black pits at him. He yelped, and stumbled back down to the area behind the truck, and drew his saber. Jordan, surprised by his reappearance, drew two long pistols from a holster under her uniform shirt. All of a sudden, several of the enemy's army flew around the corner, and quickly began firing. Zero leapt back to the top of the truck, and Jordan duck to the side, leaving the two soldiers they had been protecting to cower in the fetal position on the ground. Once the soldiers noticed the two were gone, they ran into the truck, and Zero fell down into the back of the dark truck, his figure illuminated eerily by a green light from his saber, a sadistic grin on his face. The soldiers screamed in terror, tried to run out of the truck. Nearly half fell to Zero's saber, and several others were shot down by Jordan soon afterwards. The few remaining men fled in panic to the remaining soldiers in their army. Suddenly, Zero was assaulted, finding a metal knife dive before him not even a centimeter from his face. The blade was followed by a man in a black uniform, whom Zero quickly realized was not friendly, and swung his saber at him. His opponent, without even looking up from his bent position on the ground, rolled away with blinding speed, and immediately sprang back towards Zero, His forearm held forward- as if holding a shield before himself. Zero raised his saber, but found his sword arm repelled the same way it had when he had fought Aztec. It was this magnetic push that saved him as the man in black flew past him, and would have cut his head off, had Zero not been flung backwards by the push of his saber. As the man continued on his trajectory towards the ground, Zero plunged towards him with his saber, and before he could turn around, the green saber was in his back, and he fell to the ground dead. Zero turned back to run to his Red Phoenix and perhaps gain an advantage from the air, but as soon as he got around the truck's edge, he met several repeater troops and barely dove back behind the truck to avoid their fire.

Before Zero or Jordan had a chance at all to rest, the roar of an airplane foreshadowed its presence. They looked towards the sound, and saw three jets in formation releasing a pair of missiles each. Zero grabbed Jordan, and jumped backwards, barely avoiding the missiles initial blast radius, and being carried along with the extended explosion as he tried to run from it. It flung him to his knees, and as he stood and turned around, he saw a large transport helicopter lowering several Pantheons down by ladder. He rushed forward, redrawing the saber he had sheathed, and began to slice wildly through the growing forest of blue and turquoise around him. As he finished cutting one Pantheon in half, a blue foot attached to a particularly malicious pantheon fell from the helicopter, onto Zero's head, knocking him to the ground, and dropping Calliope's case. It was immediately picked up by one of the horde, and a loud siren and series of bright red flashes from its large red eye called all of the soldiers to a halt. The whole of them quickly dispersed, returning to whatever transport vehicles they came with, and quickly sped off. Zero finally had room to stand, and shook the light-headedness that had begun to creep onto him away, before standing and bolting for the Red Phoenix he had left behind the bridge.

Within thirty seconds, he leapt onto the black leather seat, started the anti-gravity engine, the propulsion systems, pressed hard on the accelerator, and sped off after the planes now dissolving slowly against the blue canopy in the distance.

Footnotes:

1. Projected keyboard, in this and most cases, refers to a keyboard crafted purely of light, projected from a central node. A grid of lasers, monitored by four nanobot components on each corner, records where it is broken (by a finger 'pressing' the key), and displays the corresponding character on the screen to where the break occurred.

2. Fifth from the highest level of alert used by the resistance. Denotes a mild threat, although one that requires immediate attention, and could elevate into a red alert (third to the highest) if not quickly put into check.

3. A finger USB storage drive (Commonly known as a fingerflash) is a secondary storage drive stored in a reploid's wrist, usually only about half the size of the full drive in the brain (which is nearly ten times the size of any 21st century supercomputer), and stores all extraneous files a reploid may desire. It is referred to as a fingerflash because the plug is stored in the end of the index finger, and protrudes when revealed from under the false skin flap used to cover it. Tech suits have made adjustments, leaving that section uncovered so the drive will be unhindered when in use.

4. PSUs (Personal striker units) are small, compact jetpack-like instruments, utilizing four aerodynamic wings for precise flight, and equipped with several weapons, most commonly being four small beam cannons, a small set of missiles, and a machine gun apparatus of some kind. Although these accessories are variable; for example, the most elaborate one ever designed was for the infamous outlaw Shav 'the avalanche' Guntri which included ten beam cannons, two auto machine turrets, a rocket launcher, over twenty conventional bullet-fire guns, including ten holsters for his hand guns, three grenade launchers, and a cup-holder.

5. A Titan is an old failure of the hoverbike company Harley Davidson, famous for old fashioned motorcycles in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and then for its hoverbikes in the twenty-second. The company had an odd reputation by this time of releasing alternately extremely high-quality and very popular bikes and poor, shoddy, almost unheard of ones. The titan is one such failure, being large, clunky, and slow, as well as having one of the most infamously ugly model designs.

6. Repeater troops are elite weaponry units, equipped with extremely high power machine guns set up on tripods. Their rapid fire and precise skill give them the ability to 'repeatedly devastate the battle field' as the first account on them said. This earned them the nickname 'repeater troops'

7. A cloaking device works through microprojectors set up in a net-shape around a reploid, each one keeps a detailed watch on the video feed given by its counterpart directly on the other side. The disadvantage to a device such as this is that movement causes the projectors to lose track of what they were recording, and shift and ripples give away the position of the cloaked object.


	9. torn in half

Ch.9

Zero cursed the manufacturers of the phoenix for not including weapons on it, and was forced to follow the jets in their blind spot, waiting for them to land to reclaim Calliope. The day dragged on, and the light began to fall to an orange hue. Zero was angered when the sunset began, and he was forced to concentrate on the mission rather than watch the twilight dance that never seemed to bore him. The dimness of the light now forced him to follow the small, rather inadequate radar on the bike's dashboard. It was fully into the night before Zero watched the small green dots slow, allowing him to catch up to them. A long runway slowly entered his vision, darkened by the blue veil that had fallen across his vision since the sun had passed to the other end of the world, and he assumed that the jets had landed there.

He left the bike behind a warehouse of corrugated steel that sat aside the runway along with several, and peered around the edge to see what was going on. He frowned when he realized his vision was useless as it was, and he activated the night vision mode he had discovered in the factory the week before, and saw with slightly greater clarity than before, and watched a team of pantheons, tinted green under the modifications his vision alteration enforced. He slipped around the corner of the warehouse, thankful that the moon cast the building's shadow onto him. He saw that the pantheon in the center, who was shorter and bulkier than the regular ones, as well as being darker, with a small mouthpiece under the glaring red eye, was carrying calliope's case. The remaining pantheons, five or six as far as Zero could see, were walking in a circle around it, carrying rather large guns, and watching menacingly for any intrusion onto the delicate transportation. He sneaked slowly around the warehouse, following them as they walked past.

They walked to a dirt road and loaded Calliope into the back of a covered army van, and the guards followed inside, to keep guard, most likely. The one who had been carrying it walked to the front of the van, and bent his legs before springing high with surprise strength given the short stature of the robot, and landing on the top with a rather loud _CLAANG! _The driver obviously took this as a signal to start the engine, and Zero swore under his breath as it sped away rather quickly, and he was forced to follow it on foot. The truck slowly gathered speed, and, even with the inhuman boost of speed his robotic legs gave him, Zero slowly lost sight of it. He growled, and searched desperately through the seemingly infinite recesses of his cybernetic consciousness, and, before he had realized it, he had found and activated a program and his internal eye was shoved back out, made to watch the world before it. But the world before his eyes was a blur. He sped, at three times the speed of his regular running, towards the truck, which slowly regained its former size as he drew closer to it. Some force was cascading from his foot, and shoved him very quickly forward, but he had no time to look behind him as the truck drew closer, closer…

He was too close! He realized with a gasp that he was within five yards of the truck's backside, and was most definitely drawing closer. He scrabbled desperately, turning his head around to see what on his feet seemed to propel him so quickly. He saw a glimpse of long stream of white flames bursting from the soles of his boots before his feet, whose previously deep footprints had been reduced to dragging a thing line in the dust due to the extreme force from this ability, swung out from under him; having no traction, sending him into an uncontrollable spinning motion, that slowly brought him to the ground. He finally forced his feet to stop ejecting the flames, and they sputtered red and yellow as the last bits of released fuel were ignited. He lay, panting, on the ground, before feeling a sharp, almost burning sensation up his left thigh, across the respective shoulder, and on the same side of his face He sat, grunting from the pain he felt, and looked down to his shoulder, but saw almost no damage. The tech suit on his thigh was rather badly ripped, and the skin was scraped, but no other damage could be detected. He reached up with his hand, and felt his face to feel the extent of the damage. He felt metal. He winced when the bared nerve receptors stupidly sensed that they were in danger, and pulled his hand away, slightly wet with the sticky lubricant fluids that flowed through the makeshift blood vessels in him. He suddenly lost interest in his wounds when he remembered that the truck was continuing its course away from him. He stood, and activated the system again, before being fully erect, and he felt his feet propelled upwards, and his gravity-assisted position drove his face into the ground again, flipping him over, and scraping his back across the rough road in the opposite direction he was headed. He stood, holding his pounding head, after releasing the mechanism again. He narrowed his eyes in frustration, and set his feet up on their toes, and activated the jets one more time. He sped forward again, and was fine, gliding on the very tips of his feet. He soon was able to see the truck again, and delved into the mechanism again to find out how to slow himself to an even speed with it. In the process, his vision was taken from the road, and a particularly large pebble slipped his right foot to one side, and he was forced to begin fish-tailing in the middle of the road before spinning out again. He stood again, grimacing in determination like a child hell-bent on learning to ride their bicycle that day, and set out again. This time, he managed to equalize his speed with the truck, and keep himself upright until the truck began to slow down. He was relieved, and slowed down, his systems finally beginning to cool, which caused his many abrasions rather a lot of pain. He grabbed at his side, which had been torn open on his third fall, and panted. The pantheons reemerged from the back of the truck; their leader followed, taking Calliope's case while the others took up defensive positions around him.

Zero followed them slowly, to a small building protruding from the desert landscape. They stopped for a moment at the door, seeming to insert a password, and disappeared into the blackness that so readily appeared to swallow them. Zero ran to the side of the building perpendicular to the door, and hear a mechanical whirring, slowly building up like an engine, and then fading slowly out as it moved farther and farther away. Zero realized his quarry was most definitely leaving, and drew his saber just before it blinded his night-vision tinted eyes. He shut them in pain and shut off his visionary alteration. He followed the green glow of his sword around the edge of the building, and tentatively held it out to inspect the door. His eyes instantly analyzed the door, and revealed that it was of a weak thin metal, and an x-ray view showed that an electronic lock held it shut, and would open for a password from a small panel at the side of the door. Although he could have simply infiltrated the extremely primitive technology and find the password, it was easier to simply slice the weak door away. He plunged his weapon deep into the door, and watched it begin to glow orange as small, blackened pieces sparked and fell away. He slowly moved his blade along, ripping a hole across the very top, and pushed the sword downwards to do the same to the side. Once he had gone across all four sides, he brought his red boot that had caused such trouble to him in his chasing of the truck up to the door, pushing it in effortlessly. He walked in, shutting off his saber, and his eyes were nearly completely engulfed in darkness. He reopened the night vision program, and made out well enough that he was in a small room, and a descending tunnel went off like a ramp to his left. He assumed that this was the direction he needed to go, and did.

"Where the hell is Calliope, then?" Elpizo was in an uncharacteristic rage, and his clenched fists shook violently as he restrained himself from reaching up and punching the head driver of the caravan.

"I-I don't know… I was told to come out and stay in front of the cars, Fefnir had his gun pointed straight at me…" The man was terrified, never having seen Elpizo in such a terrifying rage, and his speech was now forced to a stuttering mutter

"Damn it! Are you a soldier or aren't you! You had a platoon at your disposal, why didn't you fight back?"

"They had five platoons, sir; it would have cost pointless lives to fight back."

"You don't get it, do you? That elf is more than precious cargo; that is the turning point in the war! If we have her, we win, if they have her, they win! It doesn't matter if your troops would have been killed; we're going to get killed either way!" Elpizo's fist lost its restraint, and flew into the captain's face in sheer anger, sending him flying backwards to the ground.

"S-sir," The captain said, slowly inching himself up from where he had fallen, the rest of the troops, originally intended to defend the caravan the remainder of the distance, staring now in utter terror.

"What!" Elpizo snapped, his fists still shaking out of sheer anger.

"Z-zero, zero was there too… Uh, he almost saved her, but they g-got away, and he ran off after them…"

"Damn!" Elpizo's usually tacky, gentlemanly manner was falling apart, and he was quite prepared to kill the next person who so much as looked at him wrong.

"Elpizo, why are you angry, Zero will be fine, and he'll also get Calliope back, there's nothing to be angry about." Ciel interrupted, not understanding, and not liking very much that he was angry about zero's being there.

"You put far too much trust in that boy, Ciel." Elpizo turned his head around to see her where she stood among the three platoons all prepared for defending the precious cargo that was no longer there. "He'll give away his position, they'll kill him, and know they've been followed, they will boost security, and we will never get past it. He'll be the reason we lose this war."

"You put far too little trust in him, I happen to know for a fact that he is more than capable. I have no doubts about Calliope's safety." Ciel's hands were on her hips as she looked at the cynical man. "We have no idea where they are now, so backup will be useless, we should all return to the base and try to see if we can do anything to help Zero." She turned sharply, and walked through the crowd of soldiers that parted for her, heading back to the trucks that had carried them there. She stepped inside the foremost one, sitting in the passenger's side seat. The expression on Elpizo's face froze the remaining soldiers, but his grip of fear slowly lost its control over some of the group, and they meekly backed away, filing into the backs of the trucks while the drivers sat in the cabs, starting the engines, and waited, not sure if they should leave the other half of the soldiers who remained frozen by his gaze, or take them along.

"Drive." Ciel said in her tone(1), not turning her gaze from Elpizo's.

"Um, yes ma'am." The driver said, knowing not to deal with her if her voice was like that. Elpizo's face became even more twisted and furious, watching the backs of the trucks, slowly grumbling away into the distance on the gravel road. He focused his gaze on the backs of the heads of the soldiers who had turned to watch the other half of them drive away.

"Well? Are you waiting for something? We're going to stop that moron right now. I don't care what it takes, now get in those trucks." His voice was calm, sharp, and articulate; obviously he was taking special care not to break down and destroy them all. The soldiers followed his orders, filing into the backs of the trucks, and starting the ignitions.

The tunnel seemed to go on forever, and the light of his saber was only capable of so much; Zero felt slightly scared. He forced his feet to continue forward, unsure whether he should or shouldn't. The light of his weapon seemed to be growing slightly stronger, and he was able to see slightly more. He found that his sword was no stronger, but that a small pool of light from a doorway still a good way in the distance supplemented the light, making it slightly easier to see. He hurriedly shut off his saber and ran forward eager to get away from that somewhat upsetting tunnel. He slipped himself up against the wall right inside the doorway, peering into the lit room, and inwardly frowning at what he saw. The pantheons swarmed all about, loading things into a large red fuelbacker(2), giving orders, making cargo checks, and performing other small tasks. Zero guessed there to be several hundred, and many carried a weapon of some kind, a few even stood guard in PSUs. Zero saw the short one with the mouthpiece standing next to the fuelbacker, yelling orders to the swarm of blue reploids apparently under his command. He was barely able to glimpse Calliope's case, under a flat-beam cage(3) Zero frowned, and sat still, waiting for a chance. The whole time the number of pantheons slowly diminished, when most seemed finished, several, perhaps even the majority of the, came out, gathered around another flat-beam cage, this one on a large hovering transport, and zero saw through the yellow haze of the beams a large stasis pod that held nothing but what looked to be a green bubbling liquid. The pantheon team loaded it into the truck, ran forward, and jumped into the next car. The short one walked by the car, and looked around one last time before jumping into the fuelbacker, and shutting the door.

A screeching jerk and a slow _chuga chuga tshhhhh…_ told Zero the train was about to start. He ran forward, and leapt, landing on the fuel tank, and immediately began to flit swiftly back and forth between his feet as the thin metal sheeting had begun to heat up. He ran forward, and landed with a muttered swear word and a clang on the fuelbacker. _So much for the element of surprise_ He frowned, and drew his blade before plunging it into the roof. He felt the train begin to slowly pick up speed, and looked up to see a low tunnel with no more than one foot of clearance waiting for him. He frowned, and shoved his saber to the hilt into the metal that was hardly glowing orange now. He flattened his body as best as he could to the train, and prayed to God it would be enough to pass under it. The train passed under the door, and Zero felt his back brushing lightly against the roof. He grimaced as the train picked up more and more speed, slowly causing his back to heat up and grow very uncomfortable. Soon, he heard a high scraping noise, and managed to turn his head around slightly and see sparks beginning to leap from his back, and a burning sensation poked at it, causing him to grunt in pain. All of a sudden the blast metal, which had held his blade in place up until that point, became soft enough for his saber to slip back, and his feet to hang slightly off the edge of the car. His back was now lowered out of range of the roof, but his feet were heating up very quickly from the fuel tank, which was now at almost its maximum heat. He grimaced from the pain in his feet, pulling up on the handle that kept him rooted to the roof, but only managing to tear a greater gash across the roof, and dropping his feet back farther. His statistical displays flashed red before his eyes while danger warnings flashed crazily this way and that. His feet continued to burn crazily, and his mind raced frantically, in a desperate struggle to free him of that terrible pain.

He swore very loudly as the saber slipped back again. He was forced to flip the switch, turning the saber off, and letting himself fall back to the unbearable heat of the fuel tank behind him. He felt his feet hit the white hot metal behind him, and he screamed loudly as he activated the jet propulsion system in his quickly charring feet, and managed to push himself forward to grab the handle to the back door. He ripped the door open with all his might and swung inside, shutting the door behind him as quickly as possible. He slumped to the floor, panting heavily. When he looked at his feet, he realized for the first time; they were completely black, twisted and broken. Even the pain sensors were shot, which may have been a good thing, given the endless pain they would be treating him to now if they were still there. His attention was pulled away from his feet, however, by a noise on the other side of the car. A pantheon-BK-081 series(4) stood in the doorway to the next one, staring straight at him. Zero forced his blackened feet to lift him, although he felt incredibly unstable on them, as if they would break at any moment. He reignited his saber, and stood managed to raise his head just in time to see the monster charging towards him. His eyes widened in fear, and he instinctively pushed off with his feet, only to feel something snap inside them, cutting the energy flow to his legs, as well as the height of his jump, drastically. He screamed in agony as he felt the bottom half of his body being pinned back to the door. Several things cracked, tore or fizzled, the black lubricant fluid flowed freely onto the golden arm that held his completely mangled body against the heated metal. He took his saber, still clutched in his right hand, and plunged it into the pantheons head, resulting in its immediate desisting of all action. He fell to the floor as the pressure of the arm was released and barely managed to shut of the vessels and wires that had been torn before his auto-repair program overrode his other systems, and he shut down.

_Tak tak tak…_ Jordan's fingers flew across the keyboard of her personal laptop, windows full of classified information opened and closed on the screen. Zero had been gone nearly a day, and it was quickly made known that Jordan was to do nothing in the way of trying to find him, so she had decided to do some digging. images of her mother, the long deceased uncle she never knew about, the final weapon prototype, they all blurred by, yielding no useful information. Jordan's eyes narrowed as she growled, knowing now that she would have to resort to hacking. She hated having to hack; the first time she ever did it, she was caught almost immediately afterwards, and let off with a month's restricted activity and ear-bashings from several of her superiors. She had managed not to get caught the one other time she had been forced to do it (To find out a boy's phone number), but she knew that all it would take would be a simple systems sweep within the next hour (And they were done ten times a day) to find her out. She was terrified of being caught, knowing that she would be dishonorably discharged, perhaps even brought up on charges of treason, but the way Zero had acted… She never should have trusted that stupid robot. She couldn't just let that go, what he had done to her mother. Why? What had made her mother flip like that? Why was Zero acting so strangely before?

While her mind had been wandering, her fingers had moved outside of her consciousness, and a box sat before her, asking for a login ID, and a password. She looked around her to make sure there was no-one watching her, and typed in the override code she had stolen so long ago. "Loading" was all the screen would say… The dialogue window turned green: Accepted! The code had worked; Jordan was now in Ciel's personal account. It was a piece of cake from thereon to access her personal logs, top level information, everything that belonged to Ciel. First, the commander's personal log entries… She selected the latest entry:

_July 29th,_

_I'm afraid for Zero, he won't hardly talk to me any more, ever since the power plant. I'm scared something like when he touched my wound again. He's out on the balcony now, like always. I think Allouette just went out to see him. It's only a matter of time before Iris goes out to see him. Whenever they're near each other, I'm holding my breath. If Zero were to find out who she really is, I have no idea what could happen to him; I mean, if the mere memory of blood can make him nearly short-circuit, the memory of a past lover, one who died, nonetheless, could even kill him. I'm sorry I'll have to cut this entry Short, it's almo-… _ the screen flashed and went blank. Jordan's eyes widened, and she looked around; her mother stood, a wireless plug in her hand.

"You know they won't stand for that again." She said with an obvious hint of anger.

"I wouldn't have had to if you would've just told me what was going on." Jordan narrowed her eyes at her mother. "According to Ciel, you were Zero's lover at one point."

"Yes, and I died by his hand." The cold air refused to leave her mother's voice. "Ciel resurrected me ten years ago, I met your father, and then we adopted you."

"So why can't he know this? Is there something else?"

"Nothing other than that when he was with Ciel overnight, he touched her gunshot wound. It sent him into what appeared to be severe Synov-shock(5), Ciel was afraid it could cause serious damage, or even kill him, if he learned too much too quickly. Besides that, it would make our lives incredibly complicated if he were brought back into the picture." She said, though Jordan thought it was far more complicated to leave so many loose ends as they were, but she said nothing, for her mother's eyes had begun to fog up with the artificial tears of a reploid. Jordan stood, walked over to her mother. Being sincere, and feeling the situation to be a bit ironic at the same time, and embraced her now sobbing mother. Jordan now began to understand why her mother had been so emotional before, and began to cry herself. Time disappeared; the two forgot how long they stood there, nearly forgetting why they were sad, just feeling confused, the daughter's soft, warm skin against her mother's cool synthetic replacement. It wasn't long, though, before the metal door to the outside hall flew with a clang against the entrance hall, and Ciel came flying in:

"Iris! Jordan! You two need to come see this!" Her face glistened with sweat, and she panted as if terrified; her face was ivory white.

"What's going on?" Jordan asked, stepping away from the embrace she and her mother had been holding. Her mother looked up in concern as well.

"I think Zero just died."

Zero's A.I. systems had finally managed to reconnect the majority of his systems, and he was brought back to consciousness. The first, and most predominately, annoying thing he noticed was that he had no waist or legs. The second was that over an hour had passed since he had lost consciousness, and he desperately needed to get moving. He lifted himself up on his hands, sheathed the inactive saber that was left beside him, and began to walk. Before he had stepped forward twice, however, the momentum of his mutilated torso swinging back and forth, coupled with his being so unused to having no legs, caused him to fall flat on his face. He pulled himself up with groans of pain, and looked around for a better alternative to trying to walk his way to the front. He noticed several coolant pipes on the ceiling of the car. _It's better than nothing, I suppose…_ He bent his arms and leapt as high as he could, resulting in far too much momentum, and his head smashing into the roof. He fell back with a loud thud, and lay for a moment, wishing he had his legs back. He forced himself to stand again, and pushed off with his hands again, though less violently, this time barely managing to grab a large pipe running down the middle of the ceiling. The pipe, however, had very different Ideas, and he screamed as it bent under his hands, snapped in two, and began spewing N-freeze(6) all around. Zero screamed in pain, and fell to the floor again, his right forearm frozen stiff. He held it up, staring at the white frost covering it, glistening in a rainbow of colors from the nanobot components. Although he was angry about it, he was about to admit defeat; he had one arm, no legs, no means of movement, and the coolant flow was just shut off. Before long, the caboose would overheat, and the entire train would be destroyed. That was all he needed, he shut his eyes, and was preparing to shut his systems down.

All of a sudden, His right forearm tensed up, shaking violently, and beginning to tingle. Presently, beads of light began running up and down his arm as if guided by wires. He stared, wide-eyed, as his arm began to glow brighter and brighter, it began to sting, then to burn. He was so shocked he didn't even notice the pain. It stopped. The ice was still there, his arm ceased to burn, sting, or even tingle. There was no light left over, nothing. He tried to bend his fingers… _Crik crak…_ The ice broke and fell away; his hand was functioning perfectly. He positioned it under him, and used it to help lift himself up. He decided it would be best for him to get out before the entire car froze over. He managed to walk himself out just about at the time the first half of the train had completely frozen over. He 'stepped' onto the small connecting walkway between the two cars, and saw that the train was out of the tunnel now and the sun had begun to rise. He had no time to watch the sunrise, however, and was forced to balance himself on one hand, which worked surprisingly better than he thought, to open the door with the other. The familiar _Hiss…_ of the door was hardly audible over the screaming winds, and Zero was happy to see a much more intact room than the one he had just left.

He stepped inside, not paying much attention to the contents of the room, and was repaid for his neglect with a BK pantheon only missing him by virtue of the fact that his height was severely reduced. He instinctively drew his weapon and stabbed the thing without hesitation. As the body fell, he saw three other pantheon guards running towards him, guns raised. He jumped with his arms, high over the pantheon's heads, and came down, attempting to stab one through the head. His aim, however, was impaired due to his lack of legs to balance him, and his saber stuck through the floor of the car. He pulled it out and swung around, cutting two of his opponents in half. He leapt off the ground, a bit surer of his aim this time. It was still off. All he could manage to do was grab the circular head with his right hand as he flew past, and slam it into the back wall. For some reason the light impact of this was enough to kill it. Zero was confused until he looked at its face: frozen solid. There was a cold, white mist leaking from his hand.

He wasted no time in walking out of this car, and into the next, where he was met with an even larger set of pantheons guarding it. He disposed of them with no more problem than their counterparts in the previous car, and proceeded to the next. As he opened the door, he noticed that this car was completely empty, aside from the larger flat-beam cage he had seen previously. He walked in, quite happy to be able to take a break. His rest was interrupted, however, when several streams of red light streaked very near to him. There was a host of twenty of more small glass lenses looking at him form across the car, glittering with the intention of not missing again. He rolled quickly back, barely avoiding the red strings that attempted to sever his limbs. He saw nowhere to go but up; so he did. He grabbed the corner of the roof, swinging himself upwards, and landing with a clang on the red covering of the car, Feeling the wind, previously held back by the cars, hit him like a massive bludgeon. He rolled back again, smashing into the previous car with a thud. He leapt back up to the roof, this time with a stronger grip than he had last time, and his systems auto-magnetized(7) his hands to the roof, making it much easier to move. He made a running leap across the first gap he came to, and landed with a loud clang on the next one. This apparently aroused some attention inside, and a series of clanks, rustlings, and various other noises that imply general movement that barely reached his ears above the clatter of the train and roaring of the wind, the obvious his of the doors opening was heard, and three pantheons in High-level PSUs came out, the red eyes in the center of their heads fixated strongly on him. He gulped, but still reached up for his saber, readying himself for the attackers' first volley. He had trouble holding himself straight up with only one hand to protect himself from being whipped about by the rushing wind. He steadied himself again, and held his blade before him just as the pantheons charged. He leapt over the first on to reach him, over the short blade in its hand intended for him, and grabbed the PSU's engine, intending to swing around and cut the drone's head off, but before his saber reached it, he felt the thrust of the PSU give out, and he was jerked along as he began to stop while the train continued onward. He realized with a gasp that his hand was frozen to the engine, which was covered in a solid, white frost. He snapped his hand off of the engine just before its wearer landed with a sickening _CRACK _and continued to roll off, leaving him on the car previous to the one on which he had come out. He ran forward again, leaping high and, with a circular slash, severed the legs of the remaining two pantheons that had come charging after him, and landed rather composedly on the second car to the engine. Presently, there was a loud roaring from the back of the train, and Zero looked back to see the fuel backer being destroyed by the engine. The train quickly began to slow down, and Zero continued onward, finding it much easier now that the wind wasn't rushing by so much. He leapt onto the last car, and was incredibly glad to not meet any resistance from within. He jumped down in the gap between his car and the engine, and did his best to calm down as the door slid open to the dark room inside.

Footnotes

A subtle intonation perfected by Ciel that will strike such fear into another that any order given to them will be followed out on the spot. She makes good use of this voice in her military career, as well as to perfectly mask her southern accent, one of her most deeply guarded secrets.

A type of car for trains that use a solid fuel caboose (A caboose that pushes the rest of the train in front of it by burning a solid mass of fuel through a rocket engine) set directly adjacent to the solid fuel caboose. Due to the extreme amount of heat put out by a solid fuel caboose propulsion system, it is heavily armored with blast level metal, and is, therefore, ideal for high security or top secret transports.

A cage crafted of electron firing paths across a sheet of Minovsky particles (a particle whose research was inspired by the 'Gundam' television series) which keeps the electron beams on their paths. The combination of electron bombardment and the Minovsky disruption cause a great deal of contained radiation that, when crossed, can cause severe third-degree burns in a matter of a half-second.

A BK(big knuckle) pantheon is much the same as a regular, except for the major attachment of a monstrous set of gold-plated armor around the right arm. The armor would naturally be far beyond the capacity of a pantheon to lift; therefore an extensive hydraulic system helps to support it. A force field can be erected in front of the arm, though this was originally meant as a defensive apparatus, it is more commonly used as a wider bludgeon when the basic fist is insufficient.

Synov (Synaptic Overload) Shock is a condition in which the artificial synapses of a Reploid's brain are overloaded with information and misfire, sending the wrong signal to the wrong synapse, and launching a chain reaction that overloads the brain, sending the nerves and muscles into a state rather reminiscent of a human's epileptic shock. It was named Synov shock for the scientist who discovered the condition; whose name was, rather ironically, Mikael Synosevyk.

N-freeze is a super-powered coolant used in high-heat items (Such as a solid fuel caboose). It uses a combination of liquid nitrogen and nanobots to keep cold for days at hundreds of degrees centigrade. N-freeze nanobots are able to perpetuate low temperatures through their own energy, and therefore can be circulated around the object that needs cooling, only needing to be taken out of contact for a few moments to cool itself down again

Auto-magnetization is a system that holds a reploid to a metallic surface through electromagnets in the palms and soles, and will only release when the reploid's own muscles pull it away.

Author's notes.

I'm so incredibly sorry this took so long, school, sickness, and my lingering lethargy from NaNo snowballed, and it took me forever to write. I hope the next one'll be up faster. Thanks so much for your continued support, the next chapter won't be a disappointment, promise.


	10. nightmares

Ch. 10

"How is he?"

"What just happened?"

"I don't know, the signal's gone!"

"Did he just get hurt again?"

"No, none of his nerves even went off."

"So what's happening?"

"Someone must be masking his signal, we won't know what happened until he gets out of there or destroys whatever's blocking it." Ciel typed furiously on the keyboard, trying to get Zero's signal back onscreen. "This'll be the best I can get you." She said as a faint blue circle appeared around the car he had just entered. "As long as that's there, he's at least alive." Iris and Jordan were crowded next to her, their concerned faces cast pale and white by the harsh computer screen in the dim command room. They were still in the dark about the fact that Zero's legs were missing, but had less concern about that since he had started working again. They watched intently as the blue circle sat there, Flickering slightly as his signal weakened and strengthened. They gasped collectively when the circle flashed white for a moment, but he still seemed okay, so they forgot about it, continuing to watch in suspense.

Zero stood on one hand, panting, his saber glowing a pale blue and leaking a cool mist. The engine car had been torn apart; long gashes revealed torn wires that released thin arcs of electricity into the air, the lights flickered, ice clung to the corners in white-blue clumps, and a thin frosty mist glided back and forth across the floor. His opponent stood on the other side of the room, one arm stuck deep into the wall; integrated with the onboard computer defenses of the car, the other holding a large flamethrower pointed straight at Zero. In a small glass case inset into the wall sat the small case that had caused such trouble lately; Calliope.

"Given up already?" Zero smirked, "That's no fun."

"Just giving you a chance to catch your breath. Are you ready now?" The short, squat little pantheon chuckled in a metallic voice. It's mouth had no features, but if it did, it would be smirking widely.

"I thought _you_ were catching _your_ breath, let's go already!" Zero leapt off with his left hand, swinging his frozen blade down with his right. His attack fell far short of his opponent, but at the fall of his blade, large segments of the floor rammed together; jutting straight up in jagged spikes, and freezing solid. The short pantheon simply twisted his arm, and a spike flew out form the wall beside him, stabbing the floor sheeting that had begun to come hurtling towards him skewering it and pinning it against the far wall. Zero came leaping high over the flooring that was not skewered on one of the many long needles that had flown out of the wall over the course of the fight, and slashed down again. The short little reploid raised the cannon on its arm, and released a long stream of flames straight at Zero. Zero's saber broke the flames into two streams on either side; the cold air it put out pushed it away. Zero landed just in front of the short robot, and swung straight for him. The stubby legs brought themselves up, and Zero's swing went too low. Bringing his flamethrower to face Zero, he fired again, Sending a massive cloud of red flames hurtling forward. He couldn't see through the torrent of flames, but was sure that his opponent was dead by now, and shut off the flames. He gasped when Zero stood on one hand before him, icy blue saber glimmering in front of him. The pantheon grunted in anger, and twisted his hand again, causing a short needle, only a foot in length and a few inches in diameter, to fire from the floor underneath Zero. Zero leapt back, and charged again, rolling to the side to avoid another long stream of flames that came flying towards him. Zero raised his saber, facing downward over his head, and plunged it into the ground below him, causing a white frost to spread out across the floor. The frost grew in the direction of his opponent, and as it crept along the floor under his feet, the frost began to climb his leg, and spread out as crystals of ice, rooting his feet to the floor. "Let's see how _you_ like having no legs!" Zero pushed off with his left hand, and swung his saber through the central cooling unit of the pantheon who had frozen to the spot.

"Damn it!" The pantheon roared, and pulled his arm out of the hole in the wall it had been so closely integrated with. Soon after, his top half over heated due to the complete lack of a coolant, and he resulted in a small explosion which broke the glass over Calliope's cage. Zero ran forward as quickly as possible, and grabbed Calliope's case from behind the frosted over legs and lower torso of the reploid, and turned around to walk out. Before he reached the door though, the ground below him began to heat up very quickly, and began to burn his hands _That bastard turned on the self destruct system! _He frowned general unhappiness, and picked up the pace to the door. When he reached it, the metal inside had begun to glow red, and he was caught in the back by the enormous explosion that engulfed the car as he tried to jump. This resulted in propelling him up and out, scalding his back, which produced a loud scream of pain from Zero, who was getting quite tired of being burnt that day.

He landed with a monstrous clang two cars back, and continued to roll onto the third, his fingers losing their grip on Calliope, and dropping the case into the gap between the cars. He was barely awake to realize the fact that the N-freeze had frosted over the previous car (what remained of it, at least), the car he was on, and half of the next one. He tried to pick himself up and head back, but managed to do nothing more than twitch his muscles before his energy ran critical. He forced his heavy eyelids to stay open, but before he could move again, his burnt spinal cord gave out, and he fell limp, unable to move anything as his systems shut down one by one.

"Is mister Zero better yet?" Allouette peered into the heavy duty stasis pod that held Zero, watching his moist breath creating a swelling and shrinking cloud on the glass that kept him safe from the outside world. He now had a new pair of thighs, but his lower legs hadn't been rebuilt yet.

"Nope, not quite, I'm about to do some more work, He should be up and about by tomorrow." Cerveau smiled at her from his computer on the counter near the front of the lab.

"OK!" Allouette Smiled, and skipped jovially out of the room.

Cerveau finished his preparations on the computer, and opened a drawer, pulling out a set of medical instruments, and walked over to Zero. Opening the stasis pod, he manipulated the platform on which Zero rested up and out of the stasis pod. He lifted Zero up on his side, and began to work on the spinal cord that had been fried. Only minutes later, as he was stringing a new central nerve for the right arm, he noticed it. His jaw dropped as the glistening golden string hung before him. He bolted to the desk, and grabbed a reader, which he hooked up to the string. The codes that flew before him only served to strike him more and more incredulous. He removed the reader with the utmost care, and slowly, methodically, a painstakingly careful as he possibly could, he began to remove the nerve bundle, trying to keep the priceless technology inside form being damaged.

Allouette skipped down the hall, looking for miss Ciel. She had decided that the command room was the best place to start, but she was wrong. She looked all around, but found no sign of her. She remembered he mother's words: _If you need any help, just ask a grown-up. _So that's what she did. "'Scuse me mister." She said, reaching up to tug the sleeve of the old man who had just walked by.

"Yes, Allouette, what is it?" He said, turning around to face her. "And since when do you call your own grandfather 'mister'?" His already sunken, beady eyes squinted further as he smiled at her.

"Oh! Sorry Grampa, I didn't notice it was you!" She said, smiling at him, then running forward to hug him.

"Oh-ho, I'm getting too old for you to do that you know." He said, smiling at her.

"But you aren't a human, why are you getting older?" She was confused.

"Oh no, I am older; it was Sarah's and my anniversary last week, so I had my body modified again. It will probably be the last time I can before I give out." At these words, he gained a distant look in his eyes, as if he were delving into his memories and holding tight to a time he remembered, desiring to go back there.

"Anyway, I was wondering, do you know where miss Ciel is? She said she would play with me." Allouette was oblivious to the old man's reminiscence, and simply asked the question without giving him a moment to complete his reflection.

"Hum? Oh, sorry, I believe She's in her quarters." The old man smiled again.

"Thanks grampa!" Allouette Hugged him again, though less violently this time, and ran off to Ciel's quarters. Everyone knew where Ciel's room was, though few were ever allowed inside, as She kept highly confidential files and information in there. Allouette was allowed in there more often than most, given her good standings with the resistance leader, as well as the fact that she was a child. She pressed the button on the small intercom panel to the side, and waited patiently, hands clasped behind her back, for Ciel to answer. Soon, her face appeared on the small screen over the intercom, and she smiled when she saw Allouette;

"Hold on a second, I'll open the door for you." Ciel said, and the screen shut off. There was a muffled clatter from inside, before Ciel slid the door manually, and only enough to pop her head out, as if a bit reluctant to let anyone in with the room in its current state.

"Hi, miss Ciel! Can we play now?" Allouette began to rock back and forth between the balls and heels of her feet.

"I'm sorry, Ally, I'm really busy doing something for Elpizo, so I can't right now, but You can play with Calliope if you want." Ciel looked apologetic, but Allouette understood.

"Okay! I'll play with Calliope. Can I come in?" Ciel nodded and pulled the door open further, revealing herself to be in a loose pink t-shirt, with a pair of overalls on over it. Her hair was tied back, and A wrench hung loosely from her left hand. Her clothes, face, and arms had smudges of grease sprinkled over them, topped off with a glaze of dirt and sweat: She had been working in her garage. Ciel's Garage was a small room adjacent to her own that very much resembled Cerveau's little garage on the side of his lab, and it was a very scary place most of the time, so Allouette stayed out of there for the most part. She stepped into the very plain looking room that combined sitting room and den, as well as led off to the kitchen and dining room through the far wall. She walked over to one of the couches that lined this room, and sat down, bouncing up and down slightly on the soft surface, Thoroughly fascinated by it.

"Hello there, You must be Allouette." A voice sounded from the entrance, snapping Allouette out of the hypnotic squishiness of the sofa. She looked up so see a small girl, perhaps five years old, standing in the entranceway, looking at her. She had an unusually large head for her body, and wide, searching eyes. The little girl wore a school uniform, something rarely seen in the world in those days, she had a large pair of glasses, almost to the extent of being cartoonish, and held a pencil in one hand, a book in the other. "My name is Calliope." Her voice was that of a five-year olds, but the tone she held was such a serene, calm, and matured one that she could have passed for an adult. She stepped into the room in a clean, almost supernaturally perfect way, her torso and body dipping less than a centimeter with every step. "I suppose we're playmates for the day." She smiled the small and innocent smile of a child, and sat on the couch in the same celestial, serene way that she conducted herself in her walking and speaking. "So is there anything in particular you wish to do?" She started to swing her short legs in a very childish manner, "Or should I try to come up with something?"

"Hmmmm…" Allouette looked thoughtful, "Do you know how to play checkers?" It was a simple game, but Allouette and Ciel played it often, and Allouette was very fond of it. When she said the word 'Checkers' Calliope's eyes glazed over, went dark, and glimmered slightly as the Elf searched for information.

"Yes, it's in my memory banks. Would you like to play?" Before she finished the sentence, Allouette was out of her seat, and already searching through the small metal cabinet in which Ciel kept all of her board games.

It was a very, very old set, neither electronic nor magnetic, but a simple wooden board of alternating oak and maple wood, one stained darker than the other in an alternating pattern of squares. The playing pieces were much the same, matching in color to the wood of the board. Allouette placed the board on the ground, and beckoned to Calliope, who sat across the board from her. Allouette handed her opponent her pieces, the darker ones, and they both began to place the pieces in their respective places. Since Allouette was the light pieces, she went first. A simple opening move, not a whole lot could be done at that point. Calliope's eyes glimmered for a moment, and she made a very basic counter to Allouette's piece. Allouette thought for a moment, and moved another piece, Calliope's eyes glimmered, and she moved accordingly. It continued very predictably for a while, but soon, Calliope captured one of Allouette's pieces. Allouette tried to put herself in a position to capture next turn (Something Ciel would occasionally let her get away with), but was promptly captured again. She continued to lose a piece a turn, Several of Calliope's pieces were crowned, and Allouette sat thinking. She moved again, and was countered perfectly again. Within a few moves, the board was devoid of the beige discs.

"I suppose that I've won." Calliope's tone was flat and matter-of-fact. "Do you wish to play again?"

"Sure!" Allouette clapped her hands in delight, and began to reassemble her pieces. The second game went quite the same way as the first, the sole difference being that Allouette captured one of Calliope's pieces before being completely wiped out. "You're really good at this." Allouette frowned at the board that was again covered with only the chocolate colored pieces.

"It's a simple input-output equation, It isn't very hard." Calliope reached for the pieces near Allouette's side of the board.

"But that isn't fair! You're using a computer equation!" Allouette was angry that she had been cheated so.

"It's perfectly fair, My hard drive has the protocol preset to do that."

"But that means you win every time! And that isn't fun!"

"Is it not fun to win?" Calliope held a wide-eyed and innocent look of a pet being scolded for something it had no idea was wrong, while still looking calm, collected, and very mature. Allouette was even further irked by this.

"Not if you don't have to try hard!" She hunched up her shoulders in anger that .

"But trying hard implies work, and Is work not as undesirable as winning is fun?" Calliope's mannerisms didn't change.

"Nuh-uh!" Allouette shook her head furiously, "Not if you're rewarded for it, My mommy says that The only things worth having are the ones gained through hard work."

"I see… This is very odd information. Do you wish me to play taking this into account?" She was still computerized and matter-of-fact in her tone.

"Of course I do! Just play as best you can with simple reasoning, and don't use all your computer junk to win without even trying!" Allouettetook her pieces, offered to her by Calliope, and began to place them back into their proper position, hoping maybe to win this time. She didn't. Although shje managed to capture three of her opponent's pieces, and only one of Calliope's pieces was crowned, she still lost.

"That was more difficult. I believe I understand what you meant." Calliope sat in a very contemplative looking position, trying to process the information. Her thinking was interrupted, however, when Ciel popped her grease-smudged face in the doorway.

"Calliope? Elpizo said he wanted you to be there for the next meeting, which is in a few minutes; we should get going." She said, stepping in and grabbing the rag hanging from her pocket to wipe her face.

"Yes ma'am." Calliope stood immediately, and began to walk in her smooth, perfect manner to the door, and out. Allouette began to clean up the checkers pieces, and by the time she was finished, Ciel had cleaned up, and came out in her pink human tech, smiling at her.

"Did you have a good time?" Ciel asked as they walked out of the door together.

"Yeah, but Calliope doesn't know how to play checkers."

"You truly are an astounding piece of technology, Zero." Cerveau said to the extremely angry and uncomfortable reploid who lay on the operating table in Cerveau's lab.

"Astounding or not, I'm about to kick your ass! What is going on?" Zero only had the capacity at the moment to turn his head slightly and look at Cerveau as he fiddled with his backside, shooting twinges of pain hurtling along his already broken appendages as he reconnected his spinal cord nerve by nerve.

"The less you move. The less it'll hurt." Cerveau replied in a manner that shouted 'just shut up, I'm doing you a favor, after all.' Cerveau reconnected another nerve, and smiled with satisfaction as Zero's right thumb twitched. "You see, the thing that made mega man X famous was his chameleon technology. It's truly amazing; and it was developed over a hundred years ago! But of course, it was made by that genius Dr. Thomas A. Light, and Has never been recreated. The chameleon technology allowed him to assimilate any unnatural data that that happened to electronically contact him. It would probe into it, read how it worked, and then rewrite it in a manner that suited his own systems; a truly amazing ability!"

"Ok… Was there any point to you telling me this?" Zero grumbled as Cerveau caused his neck to itch, sting, and twitch, all at the same time.

"Well, It seems that as he spent time around you, and probably used this technology in very close proximity to you, His Ability quite literally rubbed off on you. You have three nerve endings, one connected to each arm, and another near the optic nerves, that have this strange ability."

"Weird, so what made you notice it?" Zero wondered immediately how it could have rubbed off on him.

"Well, It just looked different. It only took a short analysis after that to figure it out. It seems you have already picked up an ability on the one in your right arm."

"You mean the ice thing?" Zero was now very intrigued, while his mind still roved for how on earth the ability could have transferred to him.

"So you've noticed it?" Cerveau made Zero's leg sting suddenly.

"Noticed? That thing saved my life!" Zero grunted in pain as his arm stung and his bicep undulated violently.

"And you've already figured out how to use it! Incredible!"

"By the way doctor," Zero was a bit nervous to ask the question.

"Yes?" Cerveau didn't even look up.

"How could his ability have transferred to me? I mean, He would have to be in really close proximity, wouldn't he?"

"Yes, I'm a bit baffled by that as well. I'm not really going to bother myself with it unless it poses a serious problem, which I doubt it will." Cerveau continued his work in silence while Zero pondered the situation. Zero's thought continued onto several other things before he finally heard Cerveau tell him his nervous system was now reconnected, and that he could lie down, before Cerveau moved his chair around, and began to reconstruct Zero's legs, which Zero had a feeling were going to hurt far more than his spinal cord had.

"Un-acc-eptable!" Elpizo emphasized ever syllable for added poignancy, as well as smashed his fist onto the table, which served to nearly tip over several of the coffee mugs around the large conference table. "How can you let Zero off with no sentence! It's practically High treason, what he did; He was on strict orders not to go, and he did! We cannot excuse that!"

"But Commander, Might I remind you that we were the ones with the faulty intelligence, and that without Zero, we wouldn't have recovered Calliope!" One of the more inexperienced division leaders, who didn't know how to deal with Elpizo in a state like this, spoke up.

"I don't give a damn! He was given Direct orders as a soldier, and he had sure as hell better learn to follow them, or there will be consequences!" Elpizo was spitting by now, a bad sign.

"We can not either dismiss the fact that Zero is not officially employed by us, He has no real obligation to follow our orders, He's just doing this as a favor." The R&D Leader pointed out.

"Then we have no obligation to let him live here! He should be in the brig as it is if he has no official registry with us!"

"Have you not noticed that he has single-handedly taken out two missions that half of your regiment couldn't complete in a week, in less that two days?" Iris' tone was cold as she said this, angry at Elpizo for having accused Zero so. She had been allowed into the board meetings since Zero had come along, as she knew him best, and since had become a valuable source of reason and balance. She was a mother, after all.

"Should celebrities be above the law? All He has are flashy moves and a little more experience than some of my men! There's no reason not to imprison him!"

"Elpizo, Does it matter how it happened? If Zero wins, and is a benefit to us all, why should we question it?" It was Ciel, and her voice held a tone of finality that Elpizo knew better than to deal with. "Now, you had a new war plan to show us?"

"Very well, then." Elpizo said, and opened a large hologram on the table.

_Zero lay in his bed, unable to shut himself down, staring at the ceiling. He was still preoccupied by how on earth he had contracted this ability from X. It was a truly troubling thought, him being in such incredibly close proximity to X for so long, It really made Him think he may have been gay in his previous life._

_His train of thought was interrupted, however, by the door opening, and a bright light silhouetted a figure standing in it. It was odd how much light was coming in from behind, as the lights usually went off in the base after 11 p.m. He looked over to see the figure walking towards him. When the door slid closed behind him, he saw a tall, slender man standing in a tech suit with several shades of blue in it, and a tight black undertech. Zero was both horrified and enraptured by the beautiful sight of megaman X in his quarters. X turned his head down, and Zero saw a softer pair of eyes, a pair of eyes so infinitely kind and deep that Zero immediately found himself falling into their spell. Wordlessly, X pulled of his blue tech and slowly began to unzip the undertech beneath it. Zero watched as the thin black clothe slid down the muscular shoulders, over the flat, hard chest and smoothly sculpted stomach. Z stood before him, totally naked, totally beautiful. X stepped forward and Zero sat up in bed slowly to meet that soft, beautiful face before him, those soft eyes that so gently pulled him in closer to those soft, warm lips, closer… closer…_

"Aaaaahhhhh!!!!" Zero sprung up in bed, panting and dripping coolant(1) out of sheer horror of something, but he couldn't remember what. Suddenly he did, and jerked away, snapping his head up to stare, wide-eyed, at the door. He panted, pressed back against the wall, eyes darting around to find that horrible, disgusting image from his dream. He didn't see anything. It was just a bad dream. He had let his imagination get away from him; that was all. There was no way _that_ was how he had obtained the chameleon skills, right? _It doesn't matter anymore, it's over, and nobody. NO-BODY ever knows about this. _He thought _I've really got to stop letting my imagination get away from me…_ His train of thought was stopped at that when he heard an odd noise coming from outside. He opened the door, and popped his head out, trying to determine the noise. With a shock, he realized that it was screaming. Someone was screaming! He ran out, and realized that it was coming from Ciel's quarters. He ran as quickly as he could to her door (Which didn't take long, as their quarters were quite close together), and began to pound on it, yelling,

"Ciel? Ciel, are you okay?" His pounding was soon greeted by the end of the screaming, and a short series of beeps, followed by a hiss, before the door opened to reveal Ciel. Zero's cheeks bergan to turn slightly pink at realizing the fact that she was in her underwear, but he was definitely relieved to see that she was alright. "What's wrong?" He said, and leaned down to get a better look at her face; her eyes were bloodshot, accompanied by a pair of bluish rings under her eyes, and her mouth hung rather loosely. She was very, very tired.

"It's nothing Zero." She said with a yawn, "Just a bad dream." She said, and rubbed her eyes to see him a little better. Suddenly, She froze up, her face turned pink, and her eyes slowly moved downward, hoping and praying she would see a flatspot(2). Half of the hall was awakened with a resounding, high-pitched "Eeeeewwwwww!", followed by the loud slam of Ciel's door. Zero stood, hands covering his groin, face beet-red, and eyes looking around like a child afraid of being caught doing something they knew they shouldn't have been, before he bolted down the hall, and back into his room. He ducked under the covers again, and didn't even bother to close the door (Which had been automatically been set to manual mode when he locked it before he went to sleep) as he cowered in shame under the blanket.

Again he heard a noise. This time it was quite a different one; beepings, clickings, general computer noises. He got up again, and slowly walked outside to follow the noise. It led him, slowly, to the command room, where there was only one light on; a solitary computer screen that lit the face of a young girl, perhaps five years old, a pale green color. Her eyes were invisible under two panes of glass, far bigger than necessary, over them that reflected perfectly everything in the screen. Zero set his optic zoom to 500, and looked at the reflection in her glasses. White boxes flashed up all over the place, green text inside them. She was speed reading through the entire resistance database. Zero dismissed it, figuring it couldn't mean anything.

As he walked past Ciel's door again, he heard the same noises coming from her room. He was immediately concerned again, and reached up to knock on the door, which slid open for him; she had forgotten to lock it. He walked in to the small dark house, and heard the noises continuing, though they sounded quite different now that he was this close. He followed the noises, finally winding up in front of Ciel's room, where he was met with an amazingly lewd sight. The sounds of screaming were mixed with heavy breathing ad moans of apparent pleasure as Ciel writhed under the sheets of her bed. Zero was unable to see anything beneath them but he heard more than enough: his name. His eyes went wide, and he instantly felt his body become numb and uncomfortable, he stood rooted to the spot, he watched in unwilling fascination, his jaw dropped open. He felt himself become amazingly uncomfortable as she screamed particularly loudly, and arched her back. With her back so high up, the sheets shaped more closely to her body, and Zero could see both of her arms coming to a point between her legs. Soon, she began to calm down, and her back fell down to the bed's surface. Zero suddenly realized that she was looking straight at him, eyes half closed, still muttering his name, She was half asleep, but she had seen him, knew he was there, but was on some kind of sex high that caused her not to care. He slowly forced his still half-paralyzed body to walk out of her quarters, and into the hall. Where he realized something in his general groin region that made the evening infinitely worse _Damn it! Ciel, why on earth do you have to be so hot!_ He sighed, deciding that this was the last time he would ever get out of bed in the middle of the night. He turned around to head back to his own room, only to see Jordan walking down the hall.

She had her laptop opened in her arms, and her eyes darted around as she typed and walked at the same time. She looked up, saw Zero, gasped, and stood up straight, looking as innocent as she possibly could. Zero's hands immediately sprang in front of his inconveniently difficult to cover groin, and he looked around with an unbelievably sheepish look on her face Jordan's eyes followed his hands when they sprung down, but immediately snapped back up when she realized what they were covering. Their faces slowly gained deeper and deeper shades of red, they both began to sweat, Jordan turned the tiniest bit purple; holding her breath and trying not to burst out laughing. Zero was a deeper crimson than his armor when he finally tried to edge to the side and get around Jordan. The two looked at each other one last time before saying, almost in unison; "I won't tell if you don't." Before bolting off, trying to get as far away from the embarrassment as possible. Zero vowed never to leave his bed again.

Heads were rolling, Literally. Several dead bodies littered the central command room, and several of them were missing heads. X's right forearm was smoking, and he held it before him, pointing straight at a terrified computer operative. He fired again, and watched in pleasure as the left arm of the poor reploid was torn off by a large burst of energy, and then as another shot tore straight through its chest before the man's eyes widened in horror. His cooling system gone, he instantly heated up, and soon created a small explosion that left nothing but a pair of burnt, smoking boots on top of a large black spot on the ground. "You let her get away!" He screamed at the small group of those few who had been drafted into telling X of the failure to procure Calliope. He took a step forward, which they collectively mirrored; not wishing the distance between them to close the tiniest bit "How in God's name could you have lost her to _one, damned, Soldier!_" He emphasized every word with another step, which they again copied every time.

"S-s-sir," One of them spoke up, bringing his arm up in a violently trembling salute.

"What!" X's face snapped to him, and the man cringed as the blood red gaze fell upon him.

"W-well, sir, It _was_ confirmed that Zero was the one who sabotaged the train." He was merely trying to dilute his punishment by pointing out that the situation had been hopeless for him to rectify.

"I don't give a damn if it was one Zero or fifty, The fact remains that Calliope is in the hands of the resistance!"

"S-s-s-sir…" Another gulped as he saluted as well, even more shaky than the first.

"Yes…" X snarled, continuing to be excessively aggravated by these soldiers.

"Um…" the recruit gulped, "It was also confirmed that Meta escaped his stasis pod, and is now on the loose.

"Well then Why the hell haven't we sent a search party after him? Get the damned tub of goop back in his cage before he destroys half of the state!"

"Y-yes sir!" The soldiers barked in unison, and ran off as quickly as tha\ey could, hoping that X wouldn't change his mind about not having shot them.

"You seem to be in a bit of a predicament, hmmm?" A deep , smooth voice, refined, calm, perfectly collected, and emotionally lacking, spoke from behind X.

"Indeed I am." X was too tired to be angry at someone as powerful as the person he knew had just spoken, so he turned around and decided not to snap in anyway as he engaged this voice in conversation. Except that there was nobody behind him that could have spoken.

"Oh, come now, did you really expect to be able to see me? You know I don't like that."

"I'd rather not play this game right now, I'm too tired."

"My apologies, master." Suddenly, there was a blue flash; a stream of what appeared like a stream of information on a live drive(3) wire. Presently, there was a swift flurry and a black blur before Phantom stood before X, fully cloaked, a smile barely apparent under his black mask.

"My preparations are finished, would you like me to strike?" He said.

"Yes. And If Zero happens to be the one to investigate, deal with him personally. Don't let him out alive."

Footnotes

1. When a reploid is scared or excited, or just plain working hard, the system will heat up significantly, threatening a meltdown. To compensate, the cooling system will overwork itself, sending extra coolant fluid to every area of the body. If any excess is released or sent out (Which is often, since it is difficult for the system to predict the precise amount to release), it goes to the skin and is released through pores similar to a human's. It a reploid's way of sweating

2. As a reploid has no necessity for an excretory or endocrine system (nor even a digestive system, for that matter), and are not created with sex/excretory organs or such hormones as estrogen or testosterone. This results in a smooth, flat segment between the legs typically referred to as a 'flatspot'. Some reploids, however, particularly those who are romantically attracted to one another, can opt to have genitals added on through a surgical procedure. For one to have had the procedure, and not be romantically involved, often labels one as extremely sleazy and perverted at first glance (Though it is not necessarily the case.)

3. A live drive is any circuit board or piece of circuitry that is openly exposed to the air. (Mostly seen on massive motherboards and systems that require constant maintenance and use for several functions) When a live drive is active, the streams of electrical information and impulses can be seen on the wires that carry the energy along as beads of light with slowly fading light trails that follow them. When several processes are activated at once, the board seems to be constantly moving, or alive, hence it's name.

Author's note:

thank you so much for sticking with me this far, I really appreciate it, all. I have a lot of stuff coming up soon (My birthday, for example), so it may be a little while before I get the next chapter up. Anyways, I really appreciate everyone reading, please review and lemme know everything you think! Ttfn; Ta-ta for now!


	11. the human within

Ch. 11

The next morning was most decidedly embarrassing time period Zero had gone through up to that point. He sat with Allouette (only after her copious begging and pleading), and her mother and sister. Jordan said nothing, nor did Zero, and they both blushed profusely any time their eyes turned far enough to catch the other in their sight. Cornelia was at a loss, looking confusedly back and forth between them, utterly perplexed at the absence of conversation between the two.

"Goodness, you two! What on earth is wrong?" She finally had to ask. The two only blushed and turned away. "What on earth…" she shook her head and mumbled under her breath something about youth and restlessness.

"It's 'cause Jordan saw Zero naked last night. I saw." Allouette piped up. Zero blushed even more, and Jordan even began to even turn a bit purple.

"I take it I shouldn't inquire…" her mother said in a manner that said several things, one of them being _What the hell were you two doing?_

"No…" the two said in a unison that, if possible, made them even more embarrassed. The confused, and now somewhat unsettled mother suddenly looked up to see her younger daughter stand up and run to Ciel and Calliope, who sat across the room from them, on the other side of the gap made by the two columns of long tables that filled the mess hall, Ciel was red-faced as well, and avoiding Zero's gaze as best she could. Allouette tugged violently at the loose sleeve of the large sweater Ciel wore until she finally turned around, and Allouette cheerfully invited the two over to sit with her. Ciel tried half-heartedly to refuse, but Allouette wouldn't hear of it, and pulled and asked and pleaded until Ciel reluctantly agreed to come with her. Ciel slowly stood, and calliope followed almost motionlessly and walked over to the table where the other three sat.

"Mum, this is Calliope! Mr. Zero rescued her from the train yesterday." Allouette said cheerfully, sprightly and grinning.

"Well hello there! I'm Mrs. McAllister. " Mrs. McAllister smiled, glad to get away from the deeds (Or misdeeds) of her daughter and Zero.

"Salutations" Calliope said flatly.

"Are you just going to leave it at that? At least introduce yourself." Cornelia looked at the little girl in a chastising manner, as if she were her own child.

"I am hacker type battle-ready Elf module 0003, ICA-542, codename Calliope." She said in an even more monotone fashion than usual. "Is there anything else you wish to know about this model?"

"Oh, If that isn't the cutest thing!" Cornelia giggled; she liked kids a lot.

"Cute? I'm unsure that I understand." Calliope was unused to this odd description of her actions. "Would you please elaborate?"

"Oh, how precious!" Cornelia was now holding her hands up to her face and bouncing up and down as she laughed like a little schoolgirl.

"I still don't understand…" Calliope was confused.

"She just finds your maturity level amazingly high for such a small child." Ciel said under her breath, trying to avoid being noticed as much as possible.

"Am I a child?" Calliope remained perplexed.

"You look like one, and for a motherly person like her, that's enough." Ciel was speaking out of the side of her mouth, and mumbling slightly.

"Humans are so odd. It is so inefficient to convince yourself of a falsity when one should be devoting energy to reality instead." Calliope was rather condescending in her speech; she was obviously a very efficient program.

"And so mature too! Why couldn't my children be more like you?" Cornelia was practically beside herself with fascination over this child.

"I am programmed to let no emotions interfere with my decision making; that is all." Calliope remained dubious of the woman who was obsessing over her from across the table.

Zero stood, deciding that he didn't want to hang around anymore, and headed for the door to the hall. He walked down to the elevator, and hit the button to go up. He watched the large, circular doors open above him, as the hole slowly gained size. He walked out of the warehouse like he normally did, and launched himself up onto the adjacent roof, where he sat and stared out at the sun, already well over the tops of the buildings. He sat and thought. He sat, postulating, formulating, creating, until the entire mess became all too befuddling, and he decided to stop. He was growing a bit bored, and was about to go in, when his internal radar picked up an energy signature behind him. He turned, and saw Calliope gliding gracefully over the dirty rooftop.

"Salutations." She said stoically.

"Hello." Zero replied.

"Cornelia asked me to find you and ask why you left breakfast so early." The tiny, disproportioned girl sat beside him and turned her vast, far-too-large-for-her-head eyes to look at him.

"I just didn't feel like hanging around any longer, it's not like I eat." Zero said in a voice that betrayed his irritation to the subject.

"Your speech patterns are forced and harsh, my database shows that this is evidence of anger and irritation, might I ask what has troubled you so?"

"It's nothing."

"If you are sure you want to say nothing."

"I'm sure."

"Very well." She turned toward the rising sun that Zero was enraptured by.

"Wait a second, How did you know Cornelia's name?"

"It is in the databases that in your presence Ensign 35084, Ex-wife of former Commander Michael McAllister, mother of Allouette McAllister and Private First Class Jordan McAllister, is to be referred to as Cornelia in your presence."

"So Cornelia's nothing more than an alias?" Zero hadn't for a moment suspected that as her real name, but had given her the benefit of the doubt. Of course, being burnt to a crisp, ripped in half, and attacked by a large multitude of berserk robots tends to drive such trivial thoughts as a name out of one's head.

"Of course it is, you didn't seriously believe her, did you?."

"Then what is her real name?" Zero leaned down closer, as if he would miss it when she spoke, and would never hear it again.

"That information has been classified. I am not permitted to tell you."

"You What?" Zero was getting very angry at all of the secrecy.

"There is a call for you." Calliope spoke again before he had a chance to respond.

"Wha-?" Zero was entirely confused. His state was not helped by the fact that as soon as he turned to look at Calliope, her image was fragmented and blurred. Soon she gave way to an entirely different figure; a short, Hispanic-looking man with a wide mouth, curly black hair, and a lab coat. His expression was one of fear.

"Zero? Zero are you there?" He was panting as he spoke.

"Yes, I'm right here, but who are you?" Zero was still perplexed.

"Damn! Zero! Zero, please! Anyone, if you find this message somehow, Please help me! This is Dr. Mendez of the New Spain(1) BioGen research labs, We are under attack by Neo Arcadian troops! All of my colleagues have been killed, this _is _a distress signal; Please, I have a top secret project here that they absolutely cannot be allowed to obtain!"

"Doctor, I'm right here! What do you need?" Zero was confused as to why the doctor hadn't responded when he had spoken back to the doctor's hologram that had come up in Calliope's place.

"He can't hear you; obviously, he is able to send out information, but has no way of receiving it." Calliope's voice came from the small computer chip that remained suspended inside the hologram. The doctor continued his pleading while continually looking back over his shoulder, he seemed to be cornered. "He has sent us coordinates."

"Send them to my pheo-" Zero realized with a hiss and a short string of curses that he had left his bike behind at the warehouse before he followed the truck carrying Calliope.

"Your Hoverbike was recovered yesterday when our troops invaded the supply base that was transporting me previously. It has not been returned to base yet." Zero Sighed with relief at hearing his bike had been recovered. "Besides that, we're in Japan. It would take precisely 13.46 hours at top speed for you to get there, and by then the lab will be long gone. I suggest you take a Jumper(2), I can send the coordina-..."

"We have a Jumper?" Zero was quite ready to beat someone for not informing him of these kinds of things. Zero leapt off of the building without waiting for Calliope's answer, and ran to the warehouse, punching in the code to the elevator, and heading down. He ran into the Command room, and grabbed Ciel's shoulder.

"Zero? Is something wrong?" She asked, turning towards him.

"Where's the Jumper? And why didn't I know we had one!" He snapped at her.

"The-the Jumper? Why do you need to-"

"That doesn't matter! Just tell me where it is. And why didn't I know about it!" Zero was veritably yelling now.

"It's on the lower level, just past Cerveau's lab, but why do you need it?" Ciel was rather scared at having been accosted so, and was getting annoyed at how annoying and repetitive Zero was being.

"Doesn't matter!" Zero said, running off, "And _why _didn't I know about it!" He ran out with out giving her a chance to answer. He leapt out of the elevator before it even reached the floor of the lower level, rolling past Cerveau's lab, and to the door into the wall that he assumed led to the Jumper. His assumptions were challenged when he stepped into the small, brightly lit room, containing only a large, circular, bronze colored platform raised from the floor. He could only guess that this was the Jumper, and stepped up onto it. As soon as his foot made contact, a small beep sounded from the far end of the platform, and a small square piece of metal slid away, providing room for a control panel to come up after it, perched atop a bronze pole that held it a meter-and-a-half off the ground. Zero pushed the only button on the panel, labeled "activate", and it did precisely that; The large screen that dominated the remainder of the panel's surface turned on, displaying a poor Computer graphics image of a young woman's head.

"Hello, my name is Jennifer, How may I assist you in your jump today?" She smiled at him.

"Hello, Jennifer…" Zero was taken aback by the odd interface, "I need to get somewhere."

"Are you suggesting that you take the Jumper? This has been deemed very dangerous; would you like to learn more about the dangers of people and reploids jumping?" She smiled jubilantly as the words 'yes' and 'no' appeared below her, and she looked down at them as if they were the things that brought her the most joy in the world, then up at Zero as if he brought her more joy than the buttons. Zero raised an eyebrow, but pressed the 'no' button without questioning the primitive program further. "Okay, if you say so." She smiled broadly again, "So, where do you want to go?" asked, then proceeding to stare blankly while waiting for the answer.

"I need to go to the BioGen labs in New Spain." Zero replied, keeping his voice as monotone as possible, so as not to cause her to hear something he didn't intend her to hear.

"I heard that you need to go to the big jam nads in nude plane, is that what you wanted?" She seemed totally oblivious to the bizarreness of the location she recited to him.

"No." Zero was aggravated now.

"Where do you want to go?" She smiled again.

"New Spain." He replied flatly.

"I heard that you want to go to mule pain, Is that what you wanted?"

"No." Zero said through gritted teeth.

"You seem to be having problems with this interface, would you like to input coordinates, or pick the location from a map?" The buttons showing the options materialized below her, and she smiled at them as if they were friends arriving at a party. Zero pressed the one that had 'map' written on it. He was very pleased to see this going properly as a worldwide map appeared on the screen, several small red dots flashing on it.

"What are the dots, Jennifer?" Zero crossed his fingers as he spoke to Jennifer, hoping she would hear him properly.

"Those are all Jumpers currently detected on this system." Jennifer beamed at him again. Zero was surprised she had heard properly.

"New Spain." He spoke loudly and sharply, and was relieved to see the light on what he had always known as Guam flash more brightly. A small window popped up from it, and he tapped the button displaying 'Jump now'.

"Ready to Jump?" Jennifer cried in a sickeningly happy manner.

"Yes." Zero snapped back.

"Then please stand back, and do not place any appendages or items you do not wish transported outside the ring, and anything you do want transported, please place securely and completely on the platform. All reploids should back up their memory banks now." Zero plugged his fingerflash into the port on the side of the panel, rerouted the fingerflash's connection into his main hard-drive, and transferred his memory in a compressed file to the annoying girl in the screen. "Thank you for Choosing Sony(3) to supply your Jumping needs." Two small slats beside the control panel opened, and long, thin, segmented sheets of the same bronze colored metal as the rest of the Jumper came out, and began to coil around the platform; forming a ring all the way around Zero. Electricity began to crackle and arc along the edges of the ring, and a light glow began to emanate from everything within the ring. Zero suddenly felt odd and light-headed, and then felt his feet fall out from under him, but he didn't fall. Instead, he floated there, unable to feel anything from the knees down. The sensation grew upwards, spreading all the way up his legs, through his torso, and across his arms. As the numbness grew up his neck, he became very sleepy, things started to blur together and go dark until his system was unable to maintain itself, and he shut down completely only after hearing Jennifer exuberantly calling to him "have a nice day!"

New Spain was not the most appealing place Zero had ever been, he could tell that already. He could practically feel himself sticking together under the hot sun; though it was September, which meant late winter given that he was in the southern hemisphere. The Jumper he had been transported to was practically falling apart, sitting in the middle of a building that was _literally_ falling apart. As soon as he had arrived on the other side, he was thankful that he was in one piece before he realized that there were no walls surrounding him; only tropical rainforest. A few bricks and low crumbling excuses for fortification were all that remained of the building that had once housed the Jumper. As soon as Zero had stepped from the Jumper, Jennifer's face had popped up on the screen to welcome him, but had fizzled out and fallen to static before she could finish; The Jumper was dead. Zero looked up at the sky; partly cloudy and very hot. The humidity was nearly palpable as he pushed through the rough, unyielding forest. He checked his GPS every few minutes to make sure the rough going hadn't inadvertently turned him to one side or the other. Soon enough, he came across a roughly cut path. That merged into the same direction as he was going. He decided it would be much easier to take the path, and did so. As he walked along, he picked up traces of all kinds of animals, and even saw a large tropical bird as he passed under one of the branches. At one point, he noticed a rustling in the bushes beside him, and managed to make out the small, glaring yellow eyes of a lizard peering out at him before they turned away and slid off into the darkness of the thicker foliage. Zero shook off the rather unsettling image, and kept walking.

Within the next fifteen minutes, the clouds grew thick and heavy, covering the sky with grey. The air was much cooler now, but even more humid than before. A light rain started to fall; only furthering Zero's dislike of the island. By the time Zero reached the lab, the rain was falling in torrential sheets on the tall, white walls of chipping paint of the decrepit building. _How on earth can someone work here?_ Zero thought to himself. He walked toward the clearing in which the building lay, glad to have something other than the repetitive tropical flora and fauna he had seen the whole time flanking the trail. While he was still a hundred meters out, two pantheons that had been left to guard the door charged towards him, their arm-mounted weapons pointed straight at him. He ducked under their first volley, and leapt forward from his crouched position, keeping low over the ground while he drew his saber and spun around, slicing their midriffs. He planted his feet on the ground, but his awkward angle made it difficult, and he face-planted in his attempt to land. While he was recovering, he felt two sharp burning sensations, one on the middle of his back, the other grazing his shoulder. He growled and turned around, activating his chameleon component, and swinging his saber in a wide arc. The Icy cold had plenty of room to jump from raindrop to raindrop, quickly growing out, and freezing both of the pantheons, legs and torso. Zero stood, heading to the lab, remembering he needed to hurry when one of the already cracked windows flew outwards in shards under the force of an explosion from the inside.

Before he could cross the sixty meters left to the lab, he heard loud sloshing noises behind him as something with much larger feet than he came running up behind him. His radar sensed precise distance, and Zero waited for his opponent to get within a meter of him before he leapt up, back flipping over whatever had been charging him. as he looked down at the thing, all he saw were scales. He landed on his feet, with his opponent in front of him, still heading forward. It managed to stop, and whirl around to face him. Zero saw what he would have first taken for a giant lizard, except that the thing's body looked like that of a human's. It was covered in green scales from it's alligator's snout to the long lizard-like tail that swept back and forth behind it, except the underbelly, which had the latitudinal yellow bands of a snake's belly. The same eyes he had seen before now gleamed at him through the rain. Zero was facing down what could only be described as a dragon.

"Calliope, have you seen Zero?" Ciel asked the short little girl.

"Yes. He wnt to the BioGen Labs in New Spain, apparently they were under attack." Calliope looked up only long enough to answer, and then looked back to the computer screen.

"What?" Ciel bellowed.

"Yes. He went to the BioGen Labs in New Spain, apparently they were under attack."

"You don't have to repeat yourself; it's a figure of speech." Ciel rolled hr eyes at the young girl's robotic attitude toward everything, "Why did you let him go?"

"Dr. Mendez sent out a distress signal. Zero felt obligated to go." Calliope seemed to be bothered by the anger Ciel was expressing at the situation.

"But alone? You of all people should have checked statistics!"

"I did. There was a seventy-five percent chance of survival, and a fifty percent chance of recieving no serious injury." Calliope neglected to look up this time.

"Ugh! If he were to get hurt, though, how would we help him if we have no idea where he is?" Ciel was frustrated not so much with the situation anymore as she was Calliope.

"Dr. Mendez would inform me."

"But you said Dr. Mendez is under attack, He could be-"

"Dead? No. He created me, and I checked he stability of his position. he can hold out for another hour, at least." Calliope still wouldn't even so much as look at Ciel.

"Oh, whatever." She rolled her eyes at the unchanging demeanor of the girl, and walked over to the central terminal. A scan of New Spain instantly revealed him to be right in front of the lab. "Iris." She said to the officer as she happened to pass by.

"Yes ma'am!" Iris instantly saluted.

"Gather the best men from your unit, get them battle ready, and head for New Spain, locate Zero at the BioGen Research lab, and assist him in whatever way he needs you. He will be first in command for this mission. Take the Jumper."

"The Jumper, Ma'am?" Iris' salute faltered a bit, as the thing was only used for emergencies.

"Yes, and that also means reploid soldiers only. This could make our efforts for Calliope useless; We have to secure the research at that lab, otherwise, we _will_ lose this war."

"Yes Ma'am." Iris' Heels clicked and she promptly turned around, running off to follow her orders.

"Now we sit and wait." Ciel sighed, and hit the code red button in a bored manner as the soldiers began scrambling. "I always hate this part."

The monster was breathing heavily, and its thick snorts could be heard over the rainfall. It stared angrily at Zero; obviously it was upset. Zero re-drew his weapon, and waited. The monster roared at him; charging forward. Zero jumped high again, flipping forward and holding his saber straight up; intending to slice the thing's head. All Zero was able to see was a blur of green scales as the lizard-man swerved with unfathomable speed underneath the searing blade. The monster whipped around, bringing its tail up, and whacking Zero with it, sending his flying to the ground with force that would kill a human. Zero only felt immense pain as he landed, and was unable to recover before the dragon's jaw came hurtling down towards him, teeth bared. It was all he could do to bring his free arm up, and grab the upper jaw, and hold it off while the beast snarled and plowed itself forward, hoping to break his strength. Zero shoved the monster's head up, gaining only barely enough time to roll out of the way before the giant maw came crashing back down. the two stood simultaneously, facing off again. The beast's panting was slightly heavier, and the great, muscled arms hung limply before him. The beast made a strained noise, as if crying out in pain. Zero thought for a moment he heard a voice trying to speak. The monster charged again, the same strained roar echoing from its ugly mouth. 'Why?' Zero was sure he heard it this time; but had no time to think about it as he was forced to get out of the way.

"Whyyyyyy!" It roared a third time and lunged forward. Zero jumped to the side again, trying to understand what it was saying. "I didn't..." Its voice seemed pained and weary, its eyes were deranged and bloodshot, "Do anything!" It crashed into the ground where Zero had been standing moments before. " Why does it..." It repeated the process, attacking Zero, "HURT ME?" He slashed at Zero, who was unable to evade the last attack completely, and felt the five claws dig into his side, leaving long gashes along it. _What does it want?_ Zero was unsure if he could fight this thing; it seemed innocent. "GRAH!" It resorted to a grunt this time as it bounded high, aiming to take Zero's head off. Zero leaned back, falling to the ground, his legs bent. As the lizard passed over him, Zero kicked up, sending the monster up into the air, and landing on its back with a thud. "AAAAAGH!" The beast roared in pain as it landed. It wouldn't get up, it lay there, clutching its abdomen where Zero had kicked it. "It hurts!" It bellowed in its strained, unearthly growl, "It hurts! Why!" It began to get to its feet, trembling. "YOU!" It pointed at Zero, "You made it hurt!" It tried to run to Zero, but it tripped, falling flat onto the ground. "RAAAAAGH!" The roar of pain burst from the beastly mouth yet again, "It hurts!" The beast lay writhing in pain on the ground; obviously, strong as it was, its pain tolerance wasn't very high. Zero walked warily up to it, saber held in a defensive position. The lizard had begun to calm down a bit by now, and its eyes remained fixed towards him. Zero looked back into the monster's face, and saw the eyes slowly changing; the narrow, slit-like pupils slowly contracted back to a circular shape, and the tightened muscles relaxed slightly. The beast panted heavily now, seemingly too weak to fight anymore. "P-please…" It said in a still unearthly, but less feral than before, "K-kill me."

"What?" Zero was taken aback by the thing's words.

"K-kill me. I have no more reason to live, let me at least die by my own hands and not those of fate." His words were eloquent and precise; he must have thought this recitation out long ago, and waited for the day he could ask this favor of someone. "I'm a monster." His words slowly became more and more hushed, more and more whispers, as if even speaking caused him extreme pain.

"I-I will." Zero said, feeling guilty for having so hated a thing with such human emotions. "You were a good man; I will give you a proper burial when I can." He raised his saber straight up, pointed down. He began to cry as he pulled it up to plunge it down.

"If you see my wife and daughter, tell them I love them." With those words, Zero nodded, and stabbed the man in his chest, pulling his saber across in a downward curve, then straight back across; Seppuku, a warrior's death of honor. Zero withdrew his weapon, and sheathed it on his back. As he walked towards the laboratory, he could do nothing to stop himself from breaking down into sobs. He was just glad no-one was around to see him cry.

Footnotes:

New Spain is what used to be Guam, and the southern portion of the Northern Mariana island group. As soon as Neo arcadia was established, a vigilante group in Spain held protests to the 'reconstruction of the communist regime' they believed Neo arcadia was establishing. Neo Arcadia promptly dropped a series of tactical nuclear strikes on the country, rendering it a smoldering wasteland. The U.S. Embassy in Japan managed to confiscate a letter chronicling when and where the strikes would be, but was only able to evacuate a small portion of Spain before they were attacked.

After the previously nigh-unpopulated islands received this influx of better-educated people, several scientific advancements were made with some previously unknown resources the Spanish found on the Island (The Islands, being as small as they were, quickly ran out of resources, so the materials are now synthetically manufactured in labs) This discovery launched the refugees into a rebellion for independence.

By the time this had happened, The U. S. Had joined the fight against Neo Arcadia (The only reason they hadn't been wiped out by the fearless use of nuclear warfare was because they had seized control of Neo Arcadia's nuclear facilities) and were unable to fight against New Spain as well, so they allowed them to take their independence. New Spain has, since then, rebuilt Alliances with the U.S. and now fights with them against Neo Arcadia.

A Jumper Is a teleportation device that uses radiation to break bonds between molecules, then uses Fiber-optics to send them rocketing individually through a tunnel at nearly light speed, and reassembles them on the other side. Obviously, due to large amounts of radiation, a human cannot use the Jumper. In addition to the radiation factor, the few brave or stupid enough to attempt so were rendered vegetables, or mentally retarded for several days to several weeks afterwards. A single human managed to make it through with severe amnesia. This subject died of brain cancer in six months. Most scientists took this as proof that there is a 'soul'; or some force in a human that exists beyond the mere physical molecules, and that once the molecules were sent, the 'soul' needed time to transfer itself to the teleported body. A reploid is capable of using a Jumper, but it is considered risky, and is not advised; approximately one-third of all reploids who have ever 'Jumped' were no more capable than simple maintenance droids afterwards, and one-half of the remaining two-thirds suffered amnesia. The problem of the amnesia has been since solved by allowing a Reploid to back up their hard drive in the system, and allowing them to retrieve it on the other end. Many of the scientists that support the 'soul' theory believe that this has also proven the existence of a kind of 'half-evolved soul' in reploids: a 'soul' that doesn't have as much influence as it does in a human body, so that a reploid is more propelled by logic than the emotion that humans feel. As a reploid ages, this 'soul' seems to develop more, and as they are more and more influenced by the outside world, the more and more human they become.

The well-known Sony® Company died out in 2064 after their first line of Household robots proved to have a defect that would cause them to eject limbs at high velocity whenever they were over-stimulated. Their Jumpers, however, have remained functional through the years, a large network having been set up before hand. The Resistance scoured the world in the first year of the war to find the Jumpers and move them to remote locations and mask their signature in an attempt to keep them out of Neo Arcadia's hands. Since Sony® has died out, there has been very little advancement made to the Jumper system, and the automated assistants remain primitive and stupid.

Author's note:

I'm so sorry about being so slow, I'm hoping and praying that I'll care enough to write faster from now on. If you guys want to send me a kick in the pants if you think I'm being too slow, feel free, I'll appreciate all the help I can get. Anyway, Thanks so much for reading, please tell me what you think about it, I seriously want to know if I'm doing well or not (I'll even take suggestions for what you think should happen next, since I don't have an outline or anything mapped out yet). By the way, I want to know if you think I'm going too far from canon or not, I realized that comparing this mission to the original one in the game, it's quite different (For those who had trouble understanding, this was my extremely different way of telling the first factory mission). If you guys like it this way, I can keep it, but if you think I should go more canon, I can do that too


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